Department for Transport

Travel Restrictions: Coronavirus

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the Joint Biosecurity Centre's risk assessment in July 2021 found Germany to be a higher risk for international travel than Croatia.

Robert Courts: Decisions on border measures are taken by Ministers, who take into account Joint Biosecurity Centre risk assessments of countries and territories, alongside wider public health factors.In July 2021, Germany was on the amber list. Croatia was removed from the amber list and added to the green list from 19 July 2021. The countries and territories on the green list in July 2021 were those that presented the lowest risk to the UK.From Monday 4 October, the traffic light system was replaced with a single red list of countries and simplified travel measures for arrivals from the rest of the world, depending on vaccination status.

Local Government: Snow and Ice

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate he has made of the stockpiles of rock salt held by local authorities in England; and how those figures compare to the stockpiles held by the authorities in each of the previous six winters from 2015 to 2020.

Trudy Harrison: National Highways holds a strategic reserve of salt on behalf of the Department under the provisions of the National Salt Reserve Protocol. This reserve is intended for use by English local highway authorities in the event of a national shortage of salt. In addition, National Highways holds a further reserve of salt for its own use.As at 1 October 2021, the total amount of salt held in strategic stockpiles was 351,575 tonnes, comprising 259,021 tonnes in the reserve held by National Highways on behalf of the Department, and 92,554 tonnes held by National Highways in its own reserves. The totals for previous years, 2015-2020, are included in the table below. YearStrategic Reserve held by National Highways for the Department (tonnes)National Highways Strategic Reserve (tonnes)Total strategic reserves held in England (tonnes)2021259,02192,554351,575   2020264,59192,554357,1452019265,78692,554358,3402018266,14992,554358,7032017280,577100,025380,6022016282,235100,864383,0992015286,642102,392389,034

Roads: Snow and Ice

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many tonnes of rock salt were held in the strategic stockpiles maintained by (a) his Department and (b) Highways England, as of 1 October 2021; and how those figures compare to the stockpiles available in each of the previous six winters from 2015 to 2020.

Trudy Harrison: Under Section 41 (1a) of the Highways Act 1980, as amended, local highway authorities are required “to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that safe passage along a highway is not endangered by snow or ice”. Government has no powers to intervene in these matters or with local highway winter service planning and the treatment of roads for which local highway authorities are responsible.Every winter the Department monitors salt stocks held by local highway authorities in England. We will issue our first salt survey shortly.It is difficult to make meaningful comparisons between different winter survey returns as they are invariably issued at different times and to make sense of the results we would need to know how much salt each authority holds, how much salt is on order and when delivery of that salt is expected. We would also need to know how much salt each highway authority needs to comply with Quarmby’s recommendations of being able to grit its Key Route Network 4 times a day for 12 days.National Highways manage the national emergency salt reserve on the Department’s behalf. There are 259,021 tonnes of salt in the reserve.

Train Operating Companies

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to update the data on (a) Operating payments to Train Operating Companies under emergency agreements and (b) Emergency Measure Agreement performance score and fees on the Gov.uk website.

Chris Heaton-Harris: On the 21st October the Department published operational support payments to Train Operating Companies along with the scores and fees determined through the evaluation of operator performance. This release on the Gov.uk website covered the period between September 2020 to March 2021 (performance and fees) and 1 April 2021 to 24 July 2021 (operational support). The Department is committed to providing periodic updates of this information on an ongoing basis.

Railways: Snow and Ice

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate he has made of the stockpiles of rock salt held by (a) Network Rail, (b) Train Operating Companies and (c) other railway station operators and rail service providers in England; and how those figures compare to the stockpiles held by those bodies in each of the previous six winters from 2015 to 2020.

Chris Heaton-Harris: The Department does not hold information on the levels of rock salt stockpiles used by the rail industry. As rock salt has a corrosive impact on some metals, it is only used on surfaces such as platforms and walkways. Industry use other anti-icing agents on tracks to mitigate problems caused by freezing. Network Rail and Train Operating Companies work together to ensure sufficient anti-icing agents are available, and follow well-established processes to manage their procurement, distribution and delivery.

High Speed Two: Apprentices

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of apprentices currently employed by HS2.

Andrew Stephenson: HS2 Ltd has confirmed that, as of September 2021, there are 65 apprentices in its workforce, and 550 apprentices in the HS2 supply chain.

Electric Scooters

Ben Lake: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when his Department plans to publish the interim report outlining the initial findings of the e-scooter trials.

Trudy Harrison: The Department is currently considering and quality assuring the initial findings and will look to publish as soon as possible, once finalised.

Ports: Staff

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions has he had with operators of key freight ports on (a) staffing levels and (b) the subsequent impact on the movement of goods; and if he will make a statement.

Robert Courts: The Department is in regular contact with key port operators at Ministerial and official level. Most recently this has been concerned with the wider global international shipping issues arising from increased disruption and demand, as well as the domestic supply chain matters. That engagement has not indicated port staffing to be a factor in those delays.

Travel Restrictions: South Africa

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussion he has had with officials in South Africa on South Africa's covid-19 red travel list designation.

Robert Courts: South Africa was removed from the red list at 4am on Monday 11 October.The UK government regularly engages with countries affected by red listing including South Africa.

Travel Restrictions: South Africa

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reason South Africa is on the red list for international covid-19 travel restrictions; and if he will publish the (a) data and (b) evidential basis on which South Africa has been retained on the red list for international covid-19 travel restrictions.

Robert Courts: South Africa was removed from the red list at 4am on Monday 11 October.Decisions on red list assignment and associated border measures are taken by Ministers, who take into account Joint Biosecurity Centre risk assessments of countries and territories, alongside wider public health factors. A summary of the Joint Biosecurity Centre methodology is published on gov.uk, alongside key data that supports Ministers' decisions.Key data used to support decision to remove South Africa from red list on 11 October has been published on gov.uk

Motor Vehicles

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of supporting the use of powered light vehicles to (a) improve congestion, (b) improve air quality and (c) help consumer select the right vehicle for the right journey.

Trudy Harrison: The Department gathered evidence on the potential benefits of micromobility vehicles in the Future of Transport Regulatory Review Call for Evidence in March 2020. These benefits are also being evaluated as part of our evidence gathering through ongoing national trials of e-scooters.Early evidence may show that the use of micromobility vehicles such as e-scooters has the potential to ease and improve congestion, mainly as they are smaller than other road-going vehicles. Fewer parking spaces are also needed, allowing parking space to be reallocated.Micromobility vehicles that use rechargeable electric batteries also offer a greener way to travel than taking a diesel or petrol fueled car which, depending on mode shift, could help reduce emissions and improve air quality in towns and cities.With regard to helping the consumer select the right vehicle for the right journey, micromobility vehicles give consumers more options when it comes to vehicle type. They may also make public transport accessible to more people who would otherwise have to walk too far to local stations for example.

Large Goods Vehicle Drivers

Holly Mumby-Croft: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on improving the range of services available to haulage drivers working in the UK.

Trudy Harrison: The Government recognises the need to ensure hauliers have access to appropriate services and facilities. DfT and DLUHC Ministers and officials are in close contact to progress work in this area.

Large Goods Vehicle Drivers: Facilities

Holly Mumby-Croft: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve the (a) access to and (b) quality of service station facilities for haulagedrivers in the UK.

Trudy Harrison: We recognise the important contribution that hauliers make to the nation’s economy and are aware of the concerns expressed by many drivers, operators and residents about the provision and quality of lorry parking in the UK. We are committed to looking at both established and new approaches to increase the provision for improved overnight lorry parking in England, along with developing innovative approaches to provide more capacity.Through the Department for Transport (DfT) Circular 02/2013 "The Strategic Road Network and the Delivery of Sustainable Development", we ensure that Motorway Service Area operators provide, at a minimum, free short-term parking for up to two hours for all types of vehicle allowing people to take a break, use the facilities and or eat a meal as required.Building on a 2020 review of lorry parking, the department continues to engage with key stakeholders to encourage the development of safe, secure and high-quality lorry parking. This includes the sharing of information and good practice, such as overcoming planning barriers to the development of lorry parks, improving standards of security and facilities to improve driver welfare, and exploring the benefits of innovation and new technology.

Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme

John Lamont: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many installations have been supported by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles as part of the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme in (a) the Scottish Borders, (b) Scotland and (c) the UK.

John Lamont: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many plug-in car grants have been issued in (a) the Scottish Borders Unitary Authority, (b) Scotland and (c) the UK; and what is the financial value of those grants.

John Lamont: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what engagement he has had with Scottish local authorities on the On-street Residential Chargepoint Scheme.

Trudy Harrison: Data on domestic charging devices funded by the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS) are presented in the table. Figures are from 1 July 2021. EVHS funded charging devicesScottish Borders352Scotland11,582UK157,652 The Department holds data on plug-in car grants but this database does not provide the geographic breakdown required.The table below shows, up to the end of December 2020, the number of plug-in car grant eligible models registered for the first time in the respective geographies. The right hand column provides an estimate of the maximum financial value of the grant support for these vehicles. This was calculated from vehicle registration data by applying amount of available grant for eligible models at the time of registration. This estimate does not mean that every car registered received the grant or that other cars did not receive the grant before the end of December 2020 but had not registered the car yet. Area of registrationNumber of registrations for eligible modelsMaximum potential grant support awarded 1Scotland Borders Unitary Authority308£1.1 millionScotland17,266£61 millionUK301,096£1,066 million 7 Scottish local authorities have been awarded grants totalling £1,065,381 through the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS), up to July 2021. The Scheme is administered on the Department’s behalf by Energy Saving Trust, who offer expert advice and support to local authorities throughout the application process. Energy Saving Trust, in partnership with the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles, also hosts a library of webinars and guidance documents focussing on the challenges that authorities face when installing charging infrastructure, while promoting the available funding.In early 2022, in collaboration with the Institution of Engineering and Technology, we will publish an EV infrastructure guide for local authority EV officers, to assist with the transition to ZEVs. This guide will cover the steps needed to take in order to deploy chargepoints for residents. Scottish local authorities were involved in the scoping of the document and will be asked to comment at consultation stage in due course.The Government wants to ensure that drivers can benefit from the transition to zero emission vehicles. The On-Street Residential Chargeoint Scheme (ORCS) is available to all UK local authorities to provide public chargepoints for their residents without access to private parking. £20 million is available in 2021-22 to UK local authorities through the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme.

Large Goods Vehicle Drivers: Driving Licences

Owen Thompson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of enabling people who hold a category DE driving licence to (a) automatically acquire a category C licence or (b) relax the requirements for obtaining that licence in the context of the shortage of HGV drivers.

Trudy Harrison: The Government has no plans to allow drivers with a Category D licence for buses and coaches to drive large goods vehicles without obtaining a Category C licence. While these vehicles are similar in size, it is important to recognise that they are very different in their weight and their manoeuvrability.Ensuring drivers have the right licence, and skills, needed to drive different types of vehicles is key to maintaining road safety.

Motor Vehicles: Exhaust Emissions

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the consultation on the phase out of non-zero-emission L-Category vehicles will be published.

Trudy Harrison: The Transport Decarbonisation Plan published in July set out the government’s commitments and the actions needed to decarbonise transport in the UK. This includes consulting this year on a date of 2035, or earlier if a faster transition appears feasible, for ending of sale of new non-zero emission powered two and three wheelers (and other L category vehicles).

Driving: Qualifications

Kirsten Oswald: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to offer support towards the cost of obtaining a Driver Certificate of Professional Competence for those people interested in (a) returning to and (b) taking up driving a lorry, bus, or coach professionally.

Trudy Harrison: Responsibility for planning and completing the necessary training in order to meet Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) requirements lies with individual drivers and their employers. In some circumstances, employers might decide to support the driver financially to undertake the training. The cost of periodic training courses charged to the driver is decided by approved centres and determined by commercial factors.Many employers are currently offering training packages to support drivers whose Driver CPC has lapsed to update their training through classroom or online courses. Heavy goods vehicle (HGV) licence holders, who are currently unemployed or are in receipt of Universal Credit can, at the discretion of local Department for Work (DWP) advisors, access the DWP Flexible Support Fund to renew their Driver CPC.The Department for Education is also investing up to £10 million pounds to create new ‘Skills Bootcamps’ to train up to 5,000 people to become HGV drivers. These free, intensive courses will train drivers to be road ready and gain a category C or category C+E licence, helping to tackle the current HGV driver shortage.An additional 1,000 people are expected to be trained through courses accessed locally and funded by the government’s adult education budget. To help make sure new drivers can be road ready as quickly as possible, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has also agreed to ensure that driving tests will be available for participants who have completed training courses as soon as possible.

Road Signs and Markings

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which road signs a local authority has to seek his approval prior to installation.

Trudy Harrison: A local authority needs to seek the approval of the Secretary of State for Transport for the use of any traffic signs that are not prescribed in the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions, 2016, as amended.

Motorway Service Areas: Large Goods Vehicle Drivers

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of investing in additional facilities at motorway service stations, to improve working conditions for HGV drivers.

Trudy Harrison: We recognise the important contribution that hauliers make to the nation’s economy and are aware of the concerns expressed by many drivers, operators and residents about the provision and quality of lorry parking in the UK. We are committed to looking at both established and new approaches to increase the provision for improved overnight lorry parking in England, along with developing innovative approaches to provide more capacity.Through the Department for Transport (DfT) Circular 02/2013 "The Strategic Road Network and the Delivery of Sustainable Development", we ensure that Motorway Service Area operators provide, at a minimum, free short-term parking for up to two hours for all types of vehicle allowing people to take a break, use the facilities and or eat a meal as required.Building on a 2020 review of lorry parking, the Department continues to engage with key stakeholders to encourage the development of safe, secure and high-quality lorry parking. This includes the sharing of information and good practice, such as overcoming planning barriers to the development of lorry parks, improving standards of security and facilities to improve driver welfare, and exploring the benefits of innovation and new technology.

Large Goods Vehicle Drivers: Working Hours

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the temporary increase to the maximum daily working hours for HGV drivers on road safety.

Trudy Harrison: It is important to note that the relaxations made to the drivers’ hours rules are limited in nature. No requirements of the rules, whether it be breaks during the day, daily & weekly rest periods, or weekly and fortnightly driving limits, have been removed. The rules have been relaxed in a controlled way.The drivers’ hours relaxation requires compensatory rest when the option to amend weekly rest patterns is taken. This is designed to combat cumulative fatigue and is very similar to a provision in force across the UK and EU permanently for some international driving.There is published guidance about the circumstances in which the temporary relaxations can be used. There must be evidence of detriment to the wider community, that the relaxation leads to a significant improvement and that driver safety must not be compromised. In respect of detriment and safety there are specific benchmarks.The rules are enforced by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) who also collect data on compliance.

Large Goods Vehicle Drivers: Vacancies

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the ongoing shortage of heavy goods vehicle drivers.

Trudy Harrison: Cabinet Ministers attend regular meetings organised by the National Economic Recovery Taskforce (NERT) to agree measures and actions to address the heavy goods vehicle driver shortage. Cabinet Ministers also engage in informal discussions as and when required.

Electric Vehicles: Manufacturing Industries

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps his Department has taken to encourage investment in electric vehicle and battery manufacturing in the UK.

Trudy Harrison: As part of the Government’s Net Zero Strategy, we are allocating a further £350 million for the Automotive Transformation Fund, as part of our up to £1 billion commitment to build an internationally competitive electric vehicle supply chain including gigafactories. This is in addition to the £500m of funding announced as part of the 10 Point Plan. This will help ensure the UK maximises the benefits from the transition to a zero emission vehicle future and support tens of thousands of high-quality green jobs across the UK.We continue to work closely with investors to progress plans for manufacturing the batteries that we will need for the next generation of electric vehicles here in the UK. The £1bn investment announced by Nissan and Envision AESC to create an electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing hub is a major vote of confidence in the UK. We are delivering on our commitment to transition to a zero-carbon future, secure Gigafactories and ensure we continue our proud legacy of being one of the best locations for competitive, high-quality automotive manufacturing.

Transport: Carbon Emissions

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with Ministerial colleagues in the Treasury to help ensure that transport decarbonisation measures are adequately funded in the comprehensive spending review.

Trudy Harrison: The Department for Transport is committed to decarbonising the UK’s transport system. Our pathway to net zero was set out in our ambitious Transport Decarbonisation Plan earlier this year and reducing the environmental impacts of transport is one of our Departmental Priority Outcomes.Department for Transport ministers have had positive and ongoing engagement with their HM Treasury counterparts throughout the Spending Review process. Ministers across Government are committed to achieving net zero by 2050 and we will continue to progress towards this goal over this coming Spending Review period.The outcomes of Spending Review will be published at Autumn Budget on Wednesday 27th October.

Transport: Carbon Emissions

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with Ministerial colleagues in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on ensuring that the Net Zero Strategy includes a pathway for decarbonising transport.

Trudy Harrison: Our Transport Decarbonisation Plan, published in July 2021, set out a credible, deliverable pathway to net zero greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector by 2050, as well as delivering the sector’s contribution to demanding carbon budgets along the way. The Net Zero Strategy presents a pathway to net zero emissions across the whole economy, including the transport sector.

Travel: Enfield North

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps his Department has taken to (a) decarbonise transport and (b) encourage active travel in Enfield North constituency.

Trudy Harrison: London has been allocated over £150 million of active travel funding since the start of the pandemic to support the roll-out of safe cycling and walking routes across the capital. The allocation of funding to London Boroughs is a matter for Transport for London, and this is overseen by a steering group comprising senior representatives from TfL, DfT and Number 10.

High Speed 2 Railway Line

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether it is his policy to deliver the eastern leg of HS2.

Andrew Stephenson: The Government is committed to ensuring the East Midlands, Yorkshire and North East reap the benefits of high-speed services. The Department will soon publish its Integrated Rail Plan which will confirm how we intend to take forward the HS2 Eastern Leg.

Transport: Carbon Emissions

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if his Department will publish the datasets used for the mode by mode decarbonisation pathways contained in the Transport Decarbonisation Plan.

Trudy Harrison: The Department for Transport has no immediate plans to publish the mode-by-mode datasets underpinning the decarbonisation pathways contained in the Transport Decarbonisation Plan (TDP). Further data on decarbonisation pathways for different modes will be shared as and when required for the future development of policy, in line with consultations committed to in the TDP.

Driving Tests

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to reduce the waiting time for driving tests.

Trudy Harrison: The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has a number of measures in place to increase the availability of practical driving tests. These include offering a national recovery allowance and annual leave buy back to examiners, asking all those qualified to conduct tests, but who do not do so as part of their current day job, to return to conducting tests, and conducting out of hours testing (such as on public holidays and weekends).The DVSA has also started a recruitment campaign to increase the number of examiners. To support this campaign, the agency is exploring options to temporarily contract in experienced driving assessors from other road safety organisations to become driving examiners.After lockdown, the DVSA returned to six tests per day (rather than seven) to ease examiners back into the workplace and to allow additional time between tests for COVID-secure measures to be carried out. From the 14 June, and following discussion with Public Health England, the DVSA returned to seven practical car tests, per day, per examiner in England, Scotland and Wales.Returning to seven tests a day per examiner will allow the DVSA to increase capacity across the national network by an average of 15,000 to 20,000 tests per month. The aim is to increase testing capacity as quickly as possible, whilst maintaining a COVID-secure service for customers and examiners.

Roads: Snow and Ice

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate he has made of the stockpiles of rock salt held by the highways authorities in England; and how those figures compare to the stockpiles held by those authorities in each of the previous six winters from 2015 to 2020.

Trudy Harrison: Under Section 41 (1a) of the Highways Act 1980, as amended, local highway authorities are required “to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that safe passage along a highway is not endangered by snow or ice”. Government has no powers to intervene in these matters or with local highway winter service planning and the treatment of roads for which local highway authorities are responsible.Every winter the Department monitors salt stocks held by local highway authorities in England. We will issue our first salt survey shortly.It is difficult to make meaningful comparisons between different winter survey returns as they are invariably issued at different times and to make sense of the results we would need to know how much salt each authority holds, how much salt is on order and when delivery of that salt is expected. We would also need to know how much salt each highway authority needs to comply with Quarmby’s recommendations of being able to grit its Key Route Network 4 times a day for 12 days.National Highways manage the national emergency salt reserve on the Department’s behalf. There are 259,021 tonnes of salt in the reserve.

Driving Tests: North East

Mary Kelly Foy: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, by what date his Department expects the driving theory test backlog to be cleared in the North East of England.

Mary Kelly Foy: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many driving theory tests his Department expects to take place over the next year at (a) Hexham and (b) Bishop Auckland driving test centres.

Mary Kelly Foy: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate she has made of the extra number of days of testing capacity the opening of Hexham and Bishop Auckland driving theory test centres will create per year.

Trudy Harrison: The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is working hard to provide as many driving theory test appointments as possible. The transition of the theory test service in September 2021, will improve access for people in the North East by increasing the number of test centres from four to seven. There are currently six test centres now open, including Hexham which opened on 15 October 2021. A further test centre at Bishop Auckland will be opening on 9 November 2021. These seven test centres will offer over 90,000 theory tests a year. The DVSA is working with its supplier to meet service levels to ensure local demand is met.By opening additional theory test centres in the North East, the DVSA expects to offer 110 theory test appointments at Hexham and 330 at Bishop Auckland in the next 12 months. This may vary in response to local demand.

Driving Licences

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of outstanding (a) driving licence applications, (b) short-term medical driving licence applications and (c) applications to exchange a foreign driving licence from people in (i) Oxford West and Abingdon constituency, (ii) Oxfordshire and (iii) England.

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the average waiting time for (a) driving licence applications, (b) short-term medical driving licence applications and (c) applications to exchange a foreign driving licence for people in (i) Oxford West and Abingdon constituency, (ii) Oxfordshire and (iii). England in each of the last five years.

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with stakeholders on reducing the backlog of driving licence applications.

Trudy Harrison: The information requested in questions 58489 and 58490 is not readily available and can only be provided at disproportionate cost as it would involve scrutinising each application that is awaiting processing. Paper driving licence applications are currently taking between six and ten weeks to process. There may be additional delays in processing more complex transactions, for example if medical investigations are needed. The latest information on turnaround times for paper driving licence applications can be found here.The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has a rapid response corporate services team to engage key stakeholders, including trade associations. Formal four-weekly review meetings take place where stakeholders can raise issues/concerns and provide feedback from members. The DVLA has regular contact with key stakeholders to resolve issues and address concerns quickly. This includes providing information on timescales for processing applications, working to prioritise urgent applications where they are business-critical or employment is at risk and also provided a dedicated contact point for fuel companies to progress vocational licence applications.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Carbon Capture and Storage: Investment

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the cost effectiveness of investing in carbon, capture, utilization and storage technology.

Greg Hands: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Carbon Emissions: Finance

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the funding required to meet the Government's carbon capture 2030 targets.

Greg Hands: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Magnesium: Prices

Jane Stevenson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the impact of the rise in the price of magnesium and supply issues on the aluminium extrusion industry in the UK; and if he will make a statement.

Lee Rowley: This is a global issue initiated by a reduction in Chinese magnesium production. The Government is monitoring the situation. At present there are no reported disruptions to the aluminium sector or supply chains. As part of the work to develop a strategy on Critical Minerals, the Government will establish an Expert Committee on critical minerals. This committee will provide high quality, independent and well-considered advice to the Government on technology-critical minerals and metals priorities, including magnesium.

Bounce Back Loan Scheme and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme

Owen Thompson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what provision has been made in Treasury accounts for the potential exercising of its Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme and Bounce Back Loan Scheme guarantee.

Paul Scully: Provisions for guarantee claims by lenders under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme and Bounce Back Loan Scheme are made in the accounts of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. This is because the guarantees are issued in the name of the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Potential losses arising from these two schemes are referenced in the Department’s 2019/20 Annual Report and Accounts as items arising after the reporting period. Accounting provision for potential future losses will be made in the Department’s 2020/21 Annual Report and Accounts, which will be published in due course.

Parental Leave: Pay

Mr Richard Holden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of (a) extending the period of and (b) increasing rates of pay for (a) maternity, (b) paternity and (c) joint parental leave.

Paul Scully: The Government believes that, overall, the current arrangements for parental leave and pay in the UK are generous and flexible. This includes offering 52 weeks of maternity leave, of which 39 are paid, which is more than three times the EU minimum requirement. Employment legislation sets out minimum employment rights which employers must offer to their employees. Many employers choose to offer more generous contractual provisions for their staff because they recognise the benefits this brings to their business as well as to their employees. In 2019, the Government consulted on high-level options and principles for reforming the parental leave and pay system. We are also carrying out an evaluation of the Shared Parental Leave and Pay scheme. We intend to publish our response to the consultation and the findings of the evaluation later this year.

Bounce Back Loan Scheme and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme

Owen Thompson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the (a) current and (b) estimated rate of default amongst (a) Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme and (b) Bounce Back Loan Scheme borrowers.

Paul Scully: Estimates of potential guarantee claims by lenders under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) and Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) were provided in the Department’s 2019/20 Annual Report and Accounts.

Business: Coronavirus

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many businesses have defaulted on a loan provided through the (a) Bounce Back Loan and (b) Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan scheme (i) in total and (ii) by size of business.

Paul Scully: Estimates of potential guarantee claims by lenders under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) and Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) were provided in the Department’s 2019/20 Annual Report and Accounts.

Director of Labour Market Enforcement

Imran Hussain: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Answer of 10 February 2021 to Question 147880 on Director of Labour Market Enforcement, on what date he plans to make an appointment announcement in respect of the post of Director of Labour Market Enforcement.

Paul Scully: As set out in our answer of 10 February, earlier in the year we launched a campaign to appoint a Director of Labour Market Enforcement. Since then, we have been progressing the appointment process which is now nearing its conclusion. We hope to be able to announce the successful candidate in the near future.

Bounce Back Loan Scheme and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme

Owen Thompson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate his Department has made of default rates amongst (a) Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme and (b) Bounce Back Loan Scheme borrowers in its accounting calculations.

Paul Scully: Estimates of potential guarantee claims by lenders under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) and Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) were provided in the accounts of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy for 2019/20. These estimates were in the range of 10-25% for CBILS and 35-60% for BBLS. Accounting provision for losses and potential future losses will be made in the Department’s 2020/21 accounts, which will be published in due course.

Bounce Back Loan Scheme and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme: Social Services

Munira Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding has been granted through the (a) Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme and (b) Bounce Back Loan Scheme to (i) social care providers and (ii) the social care sector as a whole.

Paul Scully: As of July 2021, the total value of CBILS and BBLS loans to businesses in the Human Health and Social Work sectors was £2,758,185,509, with 67,544 loans offered. The value of loans to businesses identifying as being in the residential care sector was £491,281,848, with 6,247 loans offered. The value of loans to businesses identifying as being in the non-residential social work sector was £512,447,147, with 13,083 loans offered.

Electric Vehicles: Charging Points

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many electric vehicle charging points are available in each (a) nation and (b) region of the UK.

Lee Rowley: A breakdown on the number of publicly available electric vehicle charging points are detailed below (as at 1 July 2021):UK 24,374England20,563North East887North West1,620Yorkshire and the Humber1,156East Midlands1,280West Midlands1,591East of England1,569London7,489South East3,254South West1,717Wales916Scotland2,565Northern Ireland330Source: DfT/Zap-Map

Companies: Scotland

Alison Thewliss: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many fines have been levied against Scottish Limited Partnerships for failing to register people with significant control in each of the last three years.

Alison Thewliss: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the value was of fines levied against Scottish Limited Partnerships for failing to register people with significant control in each of the last three years.

Paul Scully: One fine has been levied against a Scottish Limited Partnership for failing to register people with significant control in the current 2021/2022 Financial Year.

Business: Disclosure of Information

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when the Government plans to publish a response to its consultation on corporate transparency and register reform.

Paul Scully: The Department is considering the responses and will respond in due course.

Insolvency: Standards

Mr William Wragg: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to identify potential failures in the insolvency industry; and whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a single regulator and ombudsman to oversee that industry.

Paul Scully: The Government is currently reviewing the arrangements for regulation of the insolvency profession and will shortly publish proposals for consultation.

Northern Ireland Office

Community Renewal Fund: Northern Ireland

Stephen Farry: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, when he plans to announce allocations under the Community Renewal Fund for projects in Northern Ireland.

Conor Burns: There has been significant interest in the Community Renewal Fund in Northern Ireland, with bids submitted by a wide range of applicants across all of the Fund’s investment strands. Applications have been assessed for strategic fit, deliverability and value for money. Successful projects will be announced in due course by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.The UK Government has an ambitious plan to level up across the UK and the £220m Community Renewal Fund will help achieve this in Northern Ireland. By focusing on investment in skills, employment, net zero initiatives, local business and community and place, we will be making positive changes to communities right across the United Kingdom. The UK Government will ensure this investment makes a significant impact across Northern Ireland.

Department of Health and Social Care

Dental Services

Conor McGinn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase NHS dental care provision across (a) St Helens North constituency, (b) the North West and (c) England.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Ambulance Services

Jeremy Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the number of ambulance handover delays by trust since 1 April 2021.

Edward Argar: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Ambulance Services

Jeremy Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the average response times for each ambulance category by month from April to September 2021.

Edward Argar: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Ambulance Services: Emergency Calls

Jeremy Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the longest waiting time for a 999 call to be answered by each ambulance service (a) from 1 to 15 October 2021 and (b) for the latest period for which data is available.

Edward Argar: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

NHS: Drugs

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what stocks of (a) meropenem, (b) doxycycline, (c) fentanyl, (d) morphine, (e) midazolam, (f) levomepromazine, (g) paracetamol, (h) ibuprofen, (i) salbutamol inhaler doses and (j) amoxicillin were held in (a) the Essential Medicines Buffer Stock or (b) the UK Stockpile of Medicines for Covid-19 Preparedness, as of 1 October 2021.

Edward Argar: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Adult Social Care Infection Control Fund

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what additional resources have been made available to local government to (a) administer the Infection Control Fund and (b) ensure that care providers accessing that fund are using it to ensure that care workers have financial support to self-isolate.

Gillian Keegan: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Adult Social Care Infection Control Fund

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that funds made available to care home providers under the Infection Control Fund are being used to ensure that care home workers receive their normal wages in full in the event that they need to self-isolate.

Gillian Keegan: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Adult Social Care Infection Control Fund

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the accuracy of entries made by adult social care providers in the Adult Social Care Infection Control Fund Capacity Tracker.

Gillian Keegan: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

General Practitioners: Stockport

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support and resources are available to help GP surgeries in Stockport constituency to clear patient backlogs and increasing workloads.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Blood: Donors

Florence Eshalomi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what outcomes will be reviewed under his Department's plan for a 12-month post-implementation review of the removal of the question on sexual activity of partners in parts of the world with high HIV rates from the blood safety check form; what timescales are planned for completing that review; and who will be involved in conducting the review.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Blood: Donors

Florence Eshalomi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, from what date the question on sexual activity of partners in parts of the world with high HIV rates will be removed from the blood donor safety check form.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency: Redundancy

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had on potential redundancies with executive officers at the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of redundancies at the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency on its day-to-day functions.

Edward Argar: The Department regularly meets with officials at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to discuss a range of issues, including its transformation plans.The Department has not made a specific assessment of the potential effect of redundancies at the MHRA. The MHRA continues to involve trades unions and employees through formal consultation as well as continuing opportunities for engagement with senior leaders.

NHS: Agency Workers

Dr Dan Poulter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total cost to NHS hospitals has been of using (a) agency staff and (b) bank staff (i) in the financial year 2020-21 and (ii) since 1 April 2021.

Edward Argar: The information requested is not currently available as foundation trust accounts are not yet finalised.

Mental Health: Research

Patricia Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to increase funding for research on mental health.

Edward Argar: The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is the largest funder of mental health research in the United Kingdom, through the Department. The NIHR spent £93.4 million on mental health research in 2019/20. While it is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions, the NIHR’s funding is available through open competition and it encourages researchers to submit applications, including for mental health research.

Midwives and Obstetrics

Jeremy Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) midwives and (b) obstetricians there are working in NHS England.

Edward Argar: NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics for England. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), but excludes staff working in primary care, general practitioner surgeries, local authorities, and other providers.As of the end of July 2021, there were 21,942 full time equivalent (FTE) midwives working in National Health Service trusts and CCGs. As of the end of June 2021, there were 6,305 FTE doctors working in the speciality of obstetrics and gynaecology in NHS trusts and CCGs. This includes 2,542 FTE consultants.

Travel: Coronavirus

Kim Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to add Hong Kong to the list of countries whose Pfizer BioNtech vaccination will be recognised by the Government for incoming travellers.

Maggie Throup: From 11 October, eligible travellers vaccinated in over 37 new countries and territories including Hong Kong, will be treated the same as returning fully vaccinated United Kingdom residents, if they have not visited a ‘red list’ country or territory in the 10 days before arriving in England.

Influenza: Mortality Rates

Craig Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the influenza infection fatality rate in the UK in each of the last 10 years.

Maggie Throup: Influenza infection levels and related deaths are not routinely collected in the format requested, therefore this specific estimate has not been made. The number of influenza infections and deaths due to influenza-related complications varies with each flu season.

Coronavirus: Vaccination

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has plans to supply covid-19 booster vaccinations to people who have received the Novavax vaccine.

Maggie Throup: People who have received both doses of a vaccine as part of a clinical trial, including Novavax, will be offered a booster vaccination, if eligible in line with the advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). Doses of the booster vaccine are currently being offered to individuals who received their first vaccination in phase one of the programme in the JCVI’s priority groups one to nine.

Coronavirus: Vaccination

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS software will be amended to allow multiple covid-19 vaccinations to be recorded and the appropriate vaccinations required for domestic and international travel passes be displayed by the NHS app.

Maggie Throup: Currently, the first and last vaccine doses are shown on the NHS COVID Pass for international travel, with a maximum of two doses in accordance with international standards. We are reviewing the implications of booster vaccines for international travel certification, including how these doses could be incorporated into the NHS COVID Pass for travel, subject to international guidelines. Multiple vaccinations, or doses in addition to a full course of a COVID-19 vaccine and boosters, are not required for domestic certification and therefore do not impact the domestic NHS COVID Pass.

Lung Cancer

Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to (a) tackle regional inequalities in respect of lung cancer and (b) improve (i) the timeliness of referrals for treatment, (ii) early diagnosis and (iii) mortality rates among populations at risk of that disease.

Maria Caulfield: The National Lung Cancer Audit has been collecting data nationally since 2005 to ensure care meets standards and seeks to reduce unwarranted variation across the country. Targeted lung health check projects are now running in parts of the country with the highest rates of mortality from lung cancer, with 20 new locations recently confirmed for 2022/23.To improve the timeliness of referrals, NHS England and NHS Improvement have introduced the Faster Diagnosis Standard, to measure the number of patients receiving a diagnosis or ruling out of cancer within 28 days of a referral. NHS England and NHS Improvement’s ‘Help us help you’ campaign is encouraging people to come forward with symptoms, with a specific lung cancer campaign from August 2021.Lung cancer patients in England will be the first in Europe to be offered Sotorasib, a revolutionary new drug to prevent the growth of tumours. All radiotherapy centres in England are now able to deliver stereotactic ablative radiotherapy for treating certain kinds of lung cancer without the need for surgery.

Health Services: Females

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 22 July 2021 to Question 33935, what steps his Department has taken to improve cohesion between the Women’s Health Strategy and the Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy.

Maria Caulfield: Officials are working closely across both strategies to share progress and best practice to ensure cohesion.

Heart Diseases: Medical Treatments

Chris Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of aligning the treatment pathway for heart valve disease with the pathways indicated by recent international evidence.

Maria Caulfield: NHS England and NHS Improvement assess treatment pathways for heart valve disease using the best evidence available, including international evidence and advice from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

Radioligand Therapy

Peter Dowd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of specialist centres required to ensure wide and equitable access to radioligand therapies and targeted treatments on the NHS in the next 12 months.

Maria Caulfield: Radioligand therapy has not been licensed and has yet to receive approval from the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence, therefore no assessment has been made.Recent advances in radiotherapy using cutting-edge imaging and computing technology have helped target radiation doses at cancer cells more precisely. This includes proton beam therapy and stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR), both of which are available on the National Health Service. The Government has committed £250 million capital investment into two proton beam therapy facilities for the United Kingdom, at The Christie Hospital in Manchester and University College London Hospitals in London. SABR will be available as a treatment option through routine commissioning.

Medical Equipment: Manufacturing Industries

Sir Charles Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review entitled First Do No Harm, what steps the Government is taking to help ensure greater transparency of the reporting of research and sponsorship payments made by medical device manufacturers to (a) doctors, (b) teaching hospitals, (c) research institutions and (d) charities; and if he will make a statement.

Maria Caulfield: The Government’s response to the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review was published on 26 July 2021. The Government accepted in principle the recommendation on the ‘mandatory reporting for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries of payments made to teaching hospitals, research institutions and individual clinicians'. The Department is exploring options in relation to expanding and reinforcing current industry schemes and making reporting mandatory through legislation. We aim to publish an update on progress in summer 2022.

General Practitioners

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the number of GP appointments in England that are being carried out face-to-face with patients as of 1 October 2021.

Maria Caulfield: Appointment data for October 2021 is not yet available. However, from 1 to 31 August inclusive, which is the latest data available, there were an estimated 23.9 million appointments in general practice excluding COVID-19 vaccinations. Of these, 13.8 million were face to face appointments, representing 58% of all appointments that took place during that period.

Cancer: Dental Services

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 17 March 2020 to Question 27030 on Cancer: Dental Services, what progress NHS England has made on improving access to dentistry for cancer patients.

Maria Caulfield: National Health Service dentists have been asked to maximise safe treatment to meet as many prioritised needs as possible, focussing first on urgent care and vulnerable groups followed by overdue appointments. Patients undergoing treatment for cancer may have a depressed immune system and a higher need for dental care, so should be prioritised for treatment.

General Practitioners: Working Hours

Kate Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress the Government is making on rolling out evening and weekend GP appointments.

Maria Caulfield: General practice appointments in the evenings and weekends are available across the country. Patients can see a doctor, nurse or other member of a practice team at a time that is convenient to them, 365 days per year including on bank holidays.

GP Surgeries: Abuse

Nadia Whittome: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will consider a public information campaign to help combat the abuse of staff and GPs in GP surgeries.

Maria Caulfield: The Government has zero tolerance for abuse or violence directed at National Health Service staff. As announced in ‘Our plan for improving access for patients and supporting general practice’ on 14 October 2021, the Government and NHS England will work with the trades unions and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges to launch a zero-tolerance campaign. In addition, NHS England will immediately establish a £5 million fund to facilitate upgrades to practice security measures.

Maternity Services: Staff

Jeremy Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he expects the new maternity workforce planning tool that he commissioned from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to be ready.

Maria Caulfield: The Department awarded a grant to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in July 2021 to develop a tool calculate the requirements for the number of obstetricians in maternity units in England. In early 2022, the College will provide detailed information on the number of obstetricians required with the tool to be developed by June 2022.

Medical Records: Data Protection

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 17 June 2021 to Question 10377 on Medical Records: Data Protection, what proportion of the registered addresses for the organisations with which his Department shares NHS Digital data sets are overseas.

Gillian Keegan: The Data Access Request Service (DARS) provides clinicians, researchers and commissioners the data required to help improve NHS services. NHS Digital does this in line with the Data Access Service Process and holds Data Sharing Framework Contracts and Data Sharing Agreements. 1.1% of Data Controllers for the DARS have registered addresses outside of the United Kingdom.

Department for Education

School Meals

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has had discussions with relevant stakeholders on the impact of food shortages and supply chain issues on suppliers of school meals.

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that school meals are not affected by food shortages and supply chain issues.

Will Quince: There is no evidence to suggest there are widespread supply issues for schools. Schools are responsible for the provision of school meals and have flexibility under the school food standards to substitute food products if particular ingredients or meals are not readily available. School food contracts are set and held at school, academy trust, or council level. Schools can, therefore, enter into individual contracts with suppliers and caterers to meet this duty.The flexibility in the school food standards exists to ensure that menus can be modified for variety, and dietary choices or restrictions can be catered for more easily. Where items or menus are unavailable, we expect caterers to communicate this with schools. It does not mean that pupils are going without meals.The department routinely considers contingency arrangements and expects schools and catering companies supplying them to do the same.The Department for Education holds regular meetings with the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs as well as food industry representatives covering a variety of issues. In the event of any disruption to supply, we will work with councils and the sector to ensure warm, nutritious meals can continue to be provided.

Education: Equality

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to help ensure equal accessibility in education for children from all backgrounds.

Will Quince: Our ambition is for every child, no matter what challenges they face, to have access to a world-class education that sets them up for life.The government places mandatory requirements on school admission authorities through the School Admissions Code. Its purpose is to ensure that all school places for maintained schools and academies are allocated and offered in an open and fair way. The School Admissions Code requires that admission arrangements do not unfairly disadvantage children from a particular social group. On 1 September 2021, the department introduced a new School Admissions Code which aims to improve the in-year admission of vulnerable children and help reduce to a minimum any time spent out of school.Looked after and previously looked after children are among the most vulnerable in our society and so all schools are required to give highest priority in their admissions criteria to them. The School Admissions Code also gives admission authorities the freedom to choose to prioritise children eligible for the pupil premium or who have a social or medical need, according to their local circumstances.Where a pupil is identified as having special educational needs, schools should take action to remove barriers to learning and put effective special educational provision in place. Schools also have a legal duty to produce an accessibility plan that sets out how, over time, they are going to increase access to the curriculum for disabled pupils, improve the physical environment of the school to increase access for disabled pupils, and make written information more accessible to disabled pupils by providing information in a range of different ways.The department is investing £300 million in the 2021-22 financial year to support local authorities to deliver new places and improve existing provision for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities or who require alternative provision. It is for local authorities to determine how to best use this funding to address their local priorities, such as investment in accessibility to improve or broaden access to existing provision.

Ministry of Justice

Prisons: Telephone Services

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Annual Report of the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP Stafford, published on 21 September 2021, whether the free 0800 phone number used for Independent Monitoring Board applications will be continued.

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisons in England and Wales will have access to the free 0800 phone number used for Independent Monitoring Board applications in future.

Victoria Atkins: Introduced as part of the response to the pandemic, the free 0800 phone number has made Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs) more accessible to prisoners. The IMB Management Board agreed in September 2021 to extend the use of the free 0800 phone number for a further 12 months. This phone line has been enabled in all prisons in England and Wales and they are open six days a week. Calls are answered by IMB members. The overall use of the phone line varies between establishments depending on the extent of publicity and promotion by local IMB boards. The service was a key part of the IMBs response to the COVID-19 pandemic and is actively used by over fifty prisons in England and Wales in any month. Since inception over 12,000 calls have been received and over 100 volunteers have taken calls.

Crimes of Violence and 
Sexual Offences: Victims

Sir Edward Leigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference t to Chapter 12 of the Equal Treatment Bench Book, what  assessment he has made of the effect on victims of violent and sexual assault of instances where those victims are instructed to use preferred pronouns instead of referring to their alleged attacker as a member of the sex that they experienced them to be.

Sir Edward Leigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to page 330 in Chapter 12 of the Equal Treatment Bench Book, what evidence exists to support the claim that It is important to be alive to the fact that the gender history of a person may be something an opponent litigant may seek to use in order to place pressure on them.

Sir Edward Leigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the new edition of the Equal Treatment Bench Book, published in February 2021 and the Answer of 29 June 2021 to Question 19486, what legal advice was used to inform the information and guidance provided in Chapter 12 on Transgender People.

James Cartlidge: No assessment of the effect of the Equal Treatment Bench Book is made by the Ministry of Justice. To preserve the independence of the judiciary, the Lord Chief Justice (LCJ), the Senior President of the Tribunals, and the Chief Coroner have statutory responsibility for judicial training. These responsibilities are exercised through the Judicial College, which also produces the Equal Treatment Bench Book. Fair treatment is a fundamental principle embedded in the judicial oath and the Equal Treatment Bench Book is compiled by the judiciary to provide general guidelines for judicial office holders to apply as appropriate in any particular case. It is reviewed by a judicial editorial panel, with content from judicial experts and information from subject experts. The identities of the principal contributors appear in the Acknowledgments. The external documentary sources relied upon by the editors of the Bench Book are set out in full in the footnotes.

CAFCASS: Administrative Delays

Ellie Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the level of the backlog of cases in the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service as at 22 September 2021; and what steps he is taking to tackle that backlog.

Ellie Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the impact of the backlog of cases in the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service on vulnerable children and families.

James Cartlidge: The protection of children, particularly those who are most vulnerable, is a priority for this government. We recognise the additional pressures that the family justice system has faced since the Covid-19 pandemic, and the impact this has had on children and families who use the family courts. Since the start of the pandemic the number of new cases issued to Cafcass (Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) has exceeded the number of cases closed for Cafcass. As at 1 September, Cafcass caseload is 20% higher than March 2020. The Ministry of Justice has worked closely with Cafcass to manage these pressures and mitigate the impact on its services. Earlier this year £6million in additional funding was agreed to enable Cafcass to increase staff capacity to meet the increased open caseload. Cafcass has also put in place a protocol to, where necessary, prioritise cases in local service areas so it can continue to meet the needs of the most vulnerable children and families. The approach involves courts working with Cafcass to triage and allocate cases in private law proceedings on the basis of risk and capacity. The Ministry of Justice has agreed an additional £491k to support this work until the end of this financial year. Cafcass’ prioritisation protocol only applies to private law applications. All public law work continues to be allocated in the normal way and within established timescales. Urgent public law children cases are still being prioritised by the courts, to help safeguard the welfare of the most vulnerable children.

Low Newton Prison: Mental Health Services

Mary Kelly Foy: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the 2021 Independent Monitoring Board Report for HMP/YOI Low Newton, what steps he plans to take to (a) ensure that women with severe mental health issues are fast tracked to secure hospitals and (b) reduce the number of women with severe mental health issues in prison.

Victoria Atkins: We have a responsibility to ensure those in prison receive appropriate care in the right setting, at the right time. Transfer from prison to hospital for those with severe mental health issues can take too long – we acknowledged this in the Government response to the independent review of the Mental Health Act. Since then, NHS England has published guidance to speed up transfers and we have committed to legislate and enshrine a 28-day limit on such transfers in statute. Where a request is received for a transfer to hospital, and the prisoner meets the statutory criteria, a warrant for their transfer should be issued within 7 days. We are also looking to introduce an independent role to oversee such transfers as part of our reforms to the Mental Health Act. We have acknowledged that prison should not be used as a ‘place of safety’, where the court can send a person to be temporarily held on the grounds of mental health for their own or others’ protection whilst awaiting an assessment or transfer, and have committed to ending this by amending the Mental Health Act, and putting the necessary operational reforms in place. More widely, it is essential to ensure that individuals with vulnerabilities are identified early in the criminal justice system. Last year, NHS England secured full coverage of Liaison and Diversion Services in all courts, including women’s pathways to address women’s specific needs. Currently, NHS England is working to enhance these women’s pathways, and a specific women’s lead has been appointed in each service, to work on developing the pathway and appropriately address the needs of female offenders.We have also invested £9.5m through our Female Offender Strategy to support women’s community services, which provide holistic support to women in contact with the justice system, and those at risk of offending.

Youth Custody: Children

Anna McMorrin: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his Department's policy is on the length of time children in secure custody should spend in their cells per day.

Victoria Atkins: Children’s experiences in custody should be rehabilitative, aiming to prevent and reduce future offending and crime. They should spend as long as possible out of their rooms engaged in purposeful activities, such as education, training and physical activity for this reason. This must be balanced with managing the risks to safety and good order and, most recently, the significant challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Community Policing

Jess Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the Government plans to consult on a statutory duty on public bodies to commission specialist community based (a) domestic abuse and (b) sexual violence provision as set out by the Lord Chancellor in a letter to Police and Crime Commissioners dated March 2021.

Tom Pursglove: The Government is committed to using the Victims’ Bill consultation to explore the need for legislation relating to provision of community-based victim support services. The March letter to Police and Crime Commissioners said that to do this we would consult on “the provision of community-based domestic abuse services”, including considering a “duty”. This commitment was made during the passage of the Domestic Abuse Bill and was extended to cover consultation on sexual violence services within the End-to End Rape Review Action Plan. We will launch the consultation in due course.

Domestic Abuse: Community Development

Jess Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much funding the Government has allocated for the provision of community-based domestic abuse services for (a) adult victims, (b) child victims and (c) perpetrators of domestic abuse in 2020-21.

Jess Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an estimate of the funding required to meet the needs of (a) adult and (b) child victims of domestic abuse annually in England and Wales.

Victoria Atkins: For 2020/21, the Ministry of Justice allocated £69m of ‘core’ funding to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to commission and provide victim support services for all victims of crime. It is for PCCs to assess local demand and allocate this funding accordingly. A further £32 million was granted in emergency funding to over 540 charities to help domestic abuse and sexual violence community based services meet demand. The Home Office also provided funding for both national and community-based domestic violence victim support services and funding to tackle and better manage perpetrators of domestic violence.

Legal Aid Scheme

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans his Department has to extend access to legal aid.

James Cartlidge: In the 2019 Legal Support Action Plan, we announced a comprehensive review of the legal aid means test. The review is assessing the effectiveness with which the means test protects access to justice, by bringing together data, evidence and expertise from across government, and engaging with legal practitioners, representative organisations and third sector bodies. A central issue is the income and capital thresholds, but we are also reviewing other areas, such as the passporting provisions for people receiving certain benefits and the level of contributions individuals are required to pay towards their legal costs. We hope to publish the review alongside a public consultation shortly. We have also recently made changes to ensure that legal aid remains accessible to those who need it. In May 2020, we removed the mandatory element of the Civil Legal Advice telephone gateway. In December 2020, we removed the £100,000 cap on the amount of mortgage debt which can be considered in the civil means test, which means an individual’s whole mortgage debt is now deducted from their property’s value when assessing eligibility for civil legal aid. This legislation also disregarded some compensation and ex-gratia payments for the purposes of assessing legal aid eligibility. In September 2021, we announced that we will remove the legal aid means test for applicants for Exceptional Case Funding (ECF) in relation to legal representation at inquests. This change will extend access to legal aid for the bereaved and simplify the ECF process.

Young Offenders

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he has taken to improve data collection on court proceedings involving defendants aged under 18 in youth courts, adult magistrates courts and Crown Courts since the start of the covid-19 outbreak; and what plans he has to publish disaggregated data on youth criminal cases.

James Cartlidge: HM Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) published Management Information during the COVID-19 outbreak to help explain how we delivered critical public services, from June 2020 to June 2021 found here https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmcts-weekly-management-information-during-coronavirus-outbreak. In July 2021, we paused publication of this information while we conducted a review. Following this review, we stopped publishing data on a weekly basis as this is included in the monthly published data found here HMCTS monthly management information.  Management information reflects the data held on the relevant case-management systems on the date of extraction, which is subject to change, and can differ from the quality-assured MOJ official statistics, which form the agreed definitive position. The published criminal court statistics can be found here Criminal court statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)At present there are no plans to disaggregate youth data in the published statistics.

Prison Sentences

Mr Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make it his policy to facilitate the eventual termination of all imprisonment for public protection sentences in response to the recommendation of the Prison Reform Trust.

Victoria Atkins: The Government has no plans to legislate to terminate existing IPP sentences. The focus is on ensuring, via a joint HMPPS/Parole Board action plan, that IPP prisoners have every opportunity to progress towards safe release. This approach is working, with high numbers of unreleased IPP prisoners achieving a release decision each year. Indeed, as of 30 June this year there were 1,722 offenders serving the IPP sentence in prison who have never been released, down from over 6,000 when the sentence was abolished for new offences in December 2012. All IPP prisoners are by law entitled to have their continued detention reviewed by the independent Parole Board at least once every two years.

Prisons: Staff

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of prison staff who were absent from work as a result of inability to access fuel for travel to work during the week commencing 27 September 2021.

Victoria Atkins: The information requested is not available. Fuel shortage is not an absence reason recorded centrally by the department. As a contingency, we remained in close contact with senior leaders across Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) in the period where there were difficulties getting fuel to petrol stations. No groups reported staff having difficulty in reporting to work, or any subsequent regime or probation delivery difficulties as a result. There were no reports of people on probation encountering problems travelling to their appointments in the community as a result of these shortages.

Treasury

Taxation: Electronic Commerce

Andrew Bridgen: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions officials in his Department have had with representatives of online retailers on online sales taxes.

Lucy Frazer: The Government published a Call for Evidence on 21 July 2020, as part of its Fundamental Review of Business Rates, to gather views from stakeholders on all elements of the Business Rates system and alternatives, including an Online Sales Tax. Officials engaged with a broad range of stakeholders including online retailers as part of that process. The Government provided a summary of responses to the Call for Evidence in March 2021. The review will conclude later this year.

Self-employment Income Support Scheme: Appeals

Owen Thompson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will reconsider the no right to appeal rule for those who are denied Self-Employment Income Support Scheme grants from HMRC.

Lucy Frazer: The Government has provided generous support to the self-employed during the COVID-19 pandemic through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS). The SEISS has helped nearly 3 million self-employed individuals with claims totalling over £27 billion. Customers can ask HMRC to review their SEISS claim. However, HMRC have limited discretion in operating the SEISS and this discretion can only be used in exceptional circumstances. Such circumstances could include situations where HMRC have made an error that has affected an individual’s eligibility for, or amount of, a SEISS grant. There is no legal right of appeal against decisions made in relation to the SEISS, and there is also no legal provision for ‘reasonable excuse’ within the legal framework for the SEISS. The fifth and final SEISS grant closed on 30th September 2021.

Energy: VAT

Robert Halfon: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to reduce VAT on energy bills for families in the UK.

Lucy Frazer: In recognition of the fact that families should not have to bear all the VAT costs they incur to meet their energy needs, the Government already maintains a reduced rate of 5 per cent VAT on the supply of domestic energy, at a cost of £5 billion per year to the public finances.Going further would impose additional pressure on the public finances and that cost would have to be balanced by increased taxes elsewhere, or by reductions in Government spending.The Government keeps all taxes under review.

SME Brexit Support Fund

Sarah Olney: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much funding has been provided in grants by the SME Brexit Support Fund to each region of the UK.

Lucy Frazer: As of 6 October 2021, 5,352 businesses have been offered a grant by the SME Brexit Support Fund. A regional breakdown of the figures shows that businesses in England have been offered £7,289,018, in Scotland £476,539, in Wales £230,159 and in Northern Ireland £434,234.

Waste Disposal: Taxation

Geraint Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing tax incentives to encourage the (a) sorting and (b) biological treatment of waste before landfill for the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Helen Whately: The government is committed to reducing waste going to landfill. The Resources and Waste Strategy 2018 set out commitments to eliminate all avoidable waste to landfill by 2050 and to reduce the amount of municipal waste landfilled to 10% of total municipal waste by 2035. Landfill Tax provides an incentive for waste to be diverted away from landfill and has contributed to a reduction in local authority waste sent to landfill in England of 90% since 2000. The government is also introducing a world leading tax on plastic packaging from April 2022. The tax will encourage the use of recycled plastic instead of new plastic within packaging. It will create greater demand for recycled plastic, and in turn stimulate increased levels of recycling and collection of plastic waste, diverting it away from landfill or incineration. While the government has no immediate plans to introduce further tax incentives for waste management, the government will review aspects of the Landfill Tax in England and Northern Ireland in due course, as announced in spring 2021. This will ensure the tax continues to support the government’s ambitious environmental objectives.

UK Infrastructure Bank: Staff

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many staff on a (a) FTE and (b) headcount basis work for the National Infrastructure Bank (i) as at 1 October 2021 and (ii) for each month of its operation.

Helen Whately: The UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) formally launched on 17th June 2020. The UKIB will publish details of its headcount in the usual way in their first set of Annual Reports & Accounts, due to be published next year.

UK Infrastructure Bank

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many financing arrangements have been made by the National Infrastructure Bank (a) since it was set up and (b) in each month of its operation; and what is (i) the total amount of financing advanced (i) since it was set up and (ii) in each month of its operation.

Helen Whately: The UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) launched in June and is open for business. The UKIB is actively engaging with the private sector and local authorities and is in live conversations about a number of projects. UKIB has taken over management of the UK Guarantee Scheme, consisting of 9 guarantees totalling £1.8 billion of Treasury-backed infrastructure bonds and loans, supporting over £4 billion worth of investment. The Bank also operates the Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund and the Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund – previously managed by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Palestinians: Education

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has plans to review the allocation of funding to the Palestinian education system following the publication of the Georg Eckert Institute’s report on Palestinian textbooks in June 2021.

James Cleverly: Following Official Development Assistance (ODA) prioritisation exercises undertaken in March 2021, the UK no longer provides direct funding to the Palestinian Authority to support the salaries of education workers and health professionals. This decision was not influenced by the publication of the Georg Eckert Institute's report on Palestinian textbooks published in June 2021. The UK remains firmly committed to ensuring a quality education for Palestinian children, demonstrated by our longstanding support to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and through the British Council.

Afghanistan: Chevening Scholarships Programme

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 29 September 2021 to Question 50090, on Chevening Scholarships Programme: Afghanistan, what contact he has made with (a) Chevening and (b) former Chevening scholars in Afghanistan in (i) August and (ii) September 2021.

James Cleverly: Between 15 and 29 August, the UK evacuated over 15,000 people from Afghanistan. Approximately 500 of these are special cases of particularly vulnerable Afghans, which includes Chevening scholars and their dependants. Throughout August and September, the Chevening Secretariat has been in regular contact with all Afghan Chevening scholars and their families in the UK, and has been liaising with universities, local authorities and the Home Office to help scholars access support.

Western Sahara: Armed Conflict

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with his UN counterparts on the mitigation of violence in the Western Sahara.

James Cleverly: The UK fully supports UN-led efforts, as made clear in UNSCR 2548, to reach a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution, based on compromise that provides for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara consistent with the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations. We have regular discussions with the UN, both in New York and in the region, as well as with the parties regarding the situation in Western Sahara. We welcome the appointment of Staffan de Mistura as Personal Envoy to Western Sahara and encourage the parties to make the most of this opportunity for a renewed political process.

Western Sahara: Trade Agreements

Kim Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the Answer of 5 February 2021 to Question 139167 on Western Sahara: Trade Agreements, whether the Saharawi people in (a) occupied Western Sahara and (b) the refugee camps were consulted on the inclusion of certain products from the non-self governing territory of Western Sahara being included in the UK-Morocco Association Agreement.

James Cleverly: The UK is clear that the application of the UK-Morocco Association Agreement is without prejudice to our position on the status of Western Sahara, which we regard as undetermined. The UK supports UN-led efforts to reach a lasting and mutually acceptable political solution that provides for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.

Western Sahara: Human Rights

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of (a) the human rights situation and (b) the actions of the Moroccan Government in Western Sahara.

James Cleverly: The UK has consistently supported language in the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions which encourages the parties to sustain their efforts to enhance the promotion and protection of human rights in Western Sahara and in the Tindouf camps. We support UN-led efforts to achieve a lasting and mutually acceptable political solution that provides for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.

Western Sahara: Sovereignty

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions she has had with her counterpart in the US Administration on the recognition of that country of claims by Morocco of sovereignty over Western Sahara.

James Cleverly: As the former Foreign Secretary stated on 11 December 2020, the UK regards the status of Western Sahara as undetermined. The UK supports UN-led efforts to reach a lasting and mutually acceptable political solution that provides for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara. We regularly discuss the situation in Western Sahara with international partners and with the parties, encouraging them to re-engage with the UN-led political process and the new UN Personal Envoy Staffan de Mistura.

Afghanistan: Repatriation

Nadia Whittome: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to evacuate remaining British nationals in Afghanistan and their families who have a partner/child who is not a British national; and what support is being provided to fast-track biometrics and entry clearance applications for those individuals.

James Cleverly: We continue to work closely with international partners on possible flight options to help British Nationals and their dependents to safely leave Afghanistan. Since the end of the evacuation, more than 100 British Nationals and dependents have been able to leave on seven Qatari Government charter flights. We hope more British nationals will be able to make use of this route out of Afghanistan. We will also facilitate relocation, from third countries if possible, for those British Nationals and their eligible dependents.

Afghanistan: Refugees

Neale Hanvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions she has had with the Home Secretary on the clarity of advice issued to hon. Members and their staff about which Government department they should approach with enquiries from constituents who have relatives or friends in Afghanistan seeking (a) safe passage to or (b) refuge in the UK.

James Cleverly: The Government continues to press the Taliban to allow safe passage and to respect human rights, and to work to enable Afghan nationals who were employed by the UK Government, or who were notified by the Government that they were called forward or specifically authorised for evacuation, to come to the UK. Further guidance and helplines numbers for British and non-British nationals in Afghanistan are available on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/support-for-british-and-non-british-nationals-in-afghanistan. This page will be updated when new information is available.Hon. Members should approach the MoD with enquiries regarding Afghan nationals who might be eligible for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme. The eligibility criteria for the ARAP scheme are set out here, alongside details of how to apply: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghan-relocations-and-assistance-policy/afghan-relocations-and-assistance-policy-information-and-guidance.They should approach the Home Office regarding the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), information on which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/afghan-citizens-resettlement-scheme.FCDO provides consular support to British nationals. We encourage all British nationals who remain in Afghanistan to confirm their presence using this form: https://www.register-afghanistan.service.csd.fcdo.gov.uk/afghanistan-20210828/confirm-your-presence-in-afghanistan-to-fcdo to give us detailed information of those remaining. All British nationals who have correctly registered their details with the FCDO will receive important updates via email.If constituents' relatives or friends in Afghanistan are not British nationals and are not otherwise eligible to come to the UK, then there is a limit to what the British Government can do for them as individuals. The Government is committed to supporting Afghanistan and we will use every diplomatic and economic lever at our disposal to restore stability to Afghanistan.

Afghanistan: Overseas Aid

Preet Kaur Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much of the £286 million allocated in aid to Afghanistan in 2021 has been dispersed as of 18 October 2021; and what her timetable is for remaining aid to be dispersed.

James Cleverly: As of 18 October £35m has been disbursed. We expect to make an announcement on the next tranche of funding shortly and are working with partners to assess the situation on the ground and develop programmes. We plan to disburse funding by the end of this financial year.

Russia: Non-governmental Organisations

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the implications for her policies of the treatment of NGOs in Russia following the storming of the office of Memorial; and whether she has plans to hold discussions with her Russian counterpart on the protection of NGOs.

Wendy Morton: Russia is a FCDO human rights priority country and we remain deeply concerned about the deteriorating situation for civil society in Russia, including the treatment of NGOs. The UK stands by those who defend human rights, and we will continue to make our concerns clear in bilateral interactions with the Russian government. I visited Memorial's offices in November 2020 to learn more about their important work preserving the memories of the victims of Soviet repression and promoting the role of civil society. We regularly call on Russia to uphold its international commitments on freedom of assembly and freedom of expression, including in the Council of Europe and the OSCE.

Belarus: Diplomatic Relations

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the decision by the Belarusian government to expel the French Ambassador; and if the Government will express its solidarity with the French government.

Wendy Morton: The UK has expressed its solidarity with our French partners, following the Belarusian authorities' unilateral decision to withdraw the accreditation granted to the French Ambassador on 31 August 2020. This is the latest in a series of steps taken against the diplomatic community in Belarus. The UK will continue to work alongside our international partners in support of the Belarusian people and of a lasting solution to the political crisis.

Land Mines: Bomb Disposal

Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the humanitarian mine action budget will be for the next three years.

James Cleverly: Over the next 3 years the UK's demining work will continue to save lives across the world. The Global Mine Action Programme 3 (GMAP3), due to begin in 2022, will involve landmine clearance and risk education to help affected communities keep safe and capacity development for national authorities to help them manage their landmine contamination.As one of the founding signatories to the 1997 Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention and a leading supporter of mine action, the UK will also continue to work towards ending the use of landmines and cluster munitions. The UK has now taken on the Presidency of the Convention on Cluster Munitions and will use its leadership role to encourage more states to sign and implement this important treaty.

Palestinians: Textbooks

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the cost of educational materials with hateful content in the Palestinian education system that were recalled by the UN Relief and Works Agency.

James Cleverly: We have not made this assessment. The UK will continue to monitor UNRWA's implementation of its curriculum framework to ensure UNRWA's educational materials, including those on the digital learning platform, are in line with UN values. We accompany our support for UNRWA with stringent attention to implementation of their neutrality policy, including how they apply this to any educational materials.

China: Uighurs

Afzal Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of recent reports of the alleged torture of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, China; and what discussions she has had with her Chinese counterpart on those reports of alleged torture.

Amanda Milling: The Government is deeply concerned about the systematic human rights violations being perpetrated in Xinjiang, including disturbing reports of torture of Uyghur Muslims. We have led international efforts to hold China to account for its actions, leading the first two statements on Xinjiang at the UN and utilising our diplomatic network to raise the issue up the international agenda. In March, the UK announced sanctions against four Chinese officials and an entity responsible for the egregious human rights violations taking place. In January, the Government also announced a series of measures to help ensure that British organisations are not complicit in, nor profiting from, the human rights violations in the region. We will continue to take robust action, including by raising our concerns directly with the Chinese authorities.

Palestinians: Children

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will (a) raise with her Israeli counterpart (i) the fatal shooting of Mohammad Mo’ayyad Bahjat Abu Sara and (ii) the abduction and assault of a 15-year-old boy by Israeli settlers on 17 August 2021 and (b) seek assurances that there will be a criminal investigation into both incidents.

James Cleverly: We condemn any incidence of violence by settlers against Palestinians. We welcome the efforts of Israeli authorities to address settler violence, and urge them to thoroughly investigate every instance to bring those responsible to justice. We also continue to stress the importance of the Israeli security forces providing appropriate protection to the Palestinian civilian population, in particular the need to protect children, and urge restraint in the use of live fire.

Developing Countries: Coronavirus

Preet Kaur Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the oral evidence of the then Secretary of State and acting Permanent Secretary of the Department for International Development to the International Development Committee on 6 July 2020 on Humanitarian crises monitoring: impact of coronavirus, HC 292, whether it remains Government policy that there will be (a) no reduction in the staff headcount in the (a) London and (b) East Kilbride departmental offices and (b) no compulsory staff redundancies.

Amanda Milling: As the former Foreign Secretary said on 18 June 2020, there will be no compulsory redundancies as a result of the merger between FCO and DFID.However, like all Government departments, the FCDO is currently reviewing its operating costs ahead of the next Spending Review to ensure we have the right capabilities to deliver on our international priorities as set out in the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy.

British Nationals Abroad: Detainees

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will publish an estimate of the number of British residents who (a) are being detained in countries outside the UK as at 18 October 2021 and (b) have been detained outside the UK in the last five years.

Amanda Milling: Our Human Rights and Democracy reports from 2018 to 2020 state that we provided consular assistance to 2,335, 2,193 and 1,985 cases of British nationals who had been detained overseas. In 2017 the figure was not included in the report but was 2,338.The Human Rights and Democracy reports are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/human-rights-and-democracy-reports.Data on new cases of detention is also available each month and for each year here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/consular-data

Ministry of Defence

Royal Yacht: Contracts

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the proportion of the £250 million Royal Yacht contract that will be reserved for payments for the interior design of the vessel.

Mr Ben Wallace: The Ministry of Defence has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Afghanistan: Refugees

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to provide Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy applicants with a reference number where that number has not been generated on submission of their application.

James Heappey: Applicants to the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) are assigned a reference number when their case is progressed by a member of the ARAP casework team.Once their eligibility is confirmed, the applicant is informed of this decision and at this point are provided with their reference number.

Armed Forces: Health Professions

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much funding was allocated to medical and dental services for the armed forces in each year since 2015.

Leo Docherty: The Headquarters of the Defence Medical Services (HQ DMS) is responsible for healthcare to the Armed Forces. The HQ DMS Higher Level Budget allocation for Financial Years 2015-2016 to 2021-2022 is provided in the table below. Financial Year£ million2015-16499.572016-17505.542017-18482.912018-19473.942019-20499.152020-21501.522021-22522.69 There is other expenditure on healthcare by the single Services that is not accounted for centrally. This information could not be provided in the time available so I will write to the hon. Member.

Air Force: Training

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when the (a) Typhoon, (b) F-35B, (c) AH-64E Apache, (d) E-7 Wedgetail, (e) Land Ceptor/Sky Sabre SAM system will achieve formal linkage into the Gladiator training system.

Jeremy Quin: Programme Gladiator, the RAF's contribution to the Defence Operational Training Capability (DOTC), will integrate the E-3D Rearcrew Trainer (RCT) from Mar 2022 to provide a transitional capability to E-7A Wedgetail, the Joint Fires Synthetic Trainer (JFST) in spring 2023, the Typhoon Future Synthetic Trainer (TFST) in autumn 2023 and UK F-35B Lightning in 2024.Following our recent announcement of further investment in Gladiator, work is underway to formalise integration of additional training systems including E-7A Wedgetail, scheduled for spring 2026, as well as Airseeker, Poseidon, Protector, Crowsnest, Guardian and the Maritime Composite Training System (MTCS) over the 2023-2026 timeframe.While AH-64E Apache and Land Ceptor/Sky Sabre will be computer-generated in the Gladiator Synthetic environment from Initial Operating Capability, there are no funded plans to integrate their respective simulator synthetic training systems; however, options to further expand Gladiator continue to be explored.

Lebanon: Military Aid

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much defence equipment has been (a) sold and (b) gifted to Lebanon in the last five years.

Jeremy Quin: No defence equipment has been sold to Lebanon by the Ministry of Defence through the Defence Equipment Sales Authority in the last five years. A range of items including spares, communications and IT equipment, have however been gifted to Lebanon through the UK Conflict Security and Stability fund.In addition, a total of 100 Revised Weapons Mounted Installation Kit Land Rovers were gifted to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in 2021. The donation of these vehicles demonstrates the UK's commitment to supporting the LAF and promoting security and stability in the region.

Artillery: Ammunition

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, on what his Department last procured (a) ammunition rounds for the 155mm AS90 self-propelled artillery system and (b) propellant charges.

Jeremy Quin: The most recent procurements of 155mm ammunition were the L21 variant High Explosive training shell in April 2021, and the L18 propelling charge in December 2020.

Ammunition: Procurement

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, on what date his Department last procured (a) CHARM 3 rounds of any nature and (b) CHARM 3 charge bags.

Jeremy Quin: The CHARM 3 operational round (L27) was last procured in September 2001 and its associated propelling charge (L17) in November 2010. The CHARM 3 practice round (L29) was last procured in April 2009 and its associated propelling charge (L18) in February 2010.

Islamic State: Armed Conflict

Kim Leadbeater: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many civilians have been killed by British airstrikes against ISIS-K as part of the US-led coalition in Iraq and Syria, including the number of (a) children and (b) identifying family groups.

Kim Leadbeater: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many civilians have been injured by British airstrikes against ISIS-K as part of the US-led coalition in Iraq and Syria, including the number of (a) children and (b) identifying family groups.

James Heappey: The UK has not conducted any airstrikes against ISIS-K under Operation HERRICK or Operation TORAL.Under Operation SHADER, the UK's contribution to the US-led Coalition, Operation INHERENT RESOLVE, the UK has conducted airstrikes against Daesh in Iraq and Syria. The UK has accepted responsibility for one Civilian Casualty that occurred during an airstrike on Daesh fighters in eastern Syria on the 26th March 2018. This incident was subject to a Written Ministerial Statement on 2 May 2018.

Military Aircraft

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has plans to certify rotary aircraft to transport F135 engines to Carrier Strike Group.

James Heappey: The Joint Air Delivery Test and Evaluation Unit has certified the F-35 engine to be carried as an external load beneath the Chinook helicopter, which can operate from the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers.

Warships: Logistics

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 28 September 2021 to Question 51904, on Warships: Repairs and Maintenance, if he will outline the logistics supply chain responsible for transferring F-135 engines to Carrier Strike Group.

James Heappey: The manufacturer is responsible for transporting the engines to suitable hubs around the globe. Defence Support Chain Operations & Movements are then responsible for transporting the engine from the hub to the Carrier Strike Group.

Royal Engineers: Location

Dave Doogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, at what stage plans are at to relocate a regiment of the Royal Engineers from Kinloss to England; and what consultation has taken place with stakeholders in Scotland on those plans.

James Heappey: There are no plans to relocate 39 Engineer Regiment from Kinloss in Scotland to any other base.

Afghanistan: Refugees

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many successful applicants to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy scheme have been relocated to the UK since the conclusion of Operation Pitting.

James Heappey: Between the conclusion of Operation Pitting on 28 August and 19 October 2021, 91 individuals have been relocated to the UK under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP), including primary applicants and their dependants.

Afghanistan: Refugees

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many personnel were assigned to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy team as of 18 October 2021.

James Heappey: On 18 October 2021, 59 personnel were working on the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) team at Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ).

Army Air Corps: Staff

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will reconsider the Army Air Corps’ minimum height requirement for pilots of 5 feet 4 and a half inches in line with the US Air Force's decision to remove this height requirement last year.

Leo Docherty: Army Air Corps (AAC) pilot selection is based upon an assessment of the British Army's principal aircraft (Wildcat and Apache). AAC policy is not comparable to that of the US Air Force, whose requirements will be based upon their individual aircraft fleet. The anthropometric standards for AAC pilots will be reviewed in line with any changes to the aircraft fleet to ensure the AAC can continue to recruit from the widest talent base, whilst ensuring pilots can operate the aircraft safely.

Armed Forces: Mental Health

Jamie Stone: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of service personnel undertake the Annual Mental Fitness Brief each year.

Leo Docherty: From 11 October 2021, the Annual Mental Fitness Brief has been mandated for all Armed Forces Personnel. The brief covers health and wellbeing, stress management, how to transform stress into mental resilience and where personnel can seek appropriate help.

Armed Forces: Health Professions

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many medical and dental professionals were employed by the (a) British Army, (b) Royal Navy and (c) RAF in each year since 2015.

Leo Docherty: For the years requested, the tables below provide the number of trained and trade trained (Army) Medical and Dental Officers in the UK Regular Armed Forces. Medical Officers1 April 20151 April 20161 April 20171 April 20181 April 20191 April 20201 April 2021Royal Navy/Royal Marines260250260260290280280Army560540560540520550560RAF230200210200210200210Dental Officers1 April 20151 April 20161 April 20171 April 20181 April 20191 April 20201 April 2021Royal Navy/Royal Marines50504040404040Army110100100100909080RAF40404040303030 UK Regulars are full-time Service personnel, including Nursing Services, excluding Full Time Reserve Service personnel, Gurkhas, mobilised Reservists, Military Provost Guarding Service, Locally Engaged Personnel, and Non-Regular Permanent Service. Figures are comprised of Medical Officers and Dental Officers. They do not include Nursing Officers or Other Ranks in medical or dental trades. Trained strength comprises military personnel who have completed Phase 1 and 2 training for Royal Navy/Royal Marines and the RAF. Following the change in definition of trained strength for the Army, from 1 October 2016, trained strength for the Army comprises of personnel who have completed Phase 1 training. Trade trained strength relates to the Army only and includes personnel who have passed Phase 2 training.Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10, though numbers ending in a 5 have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent the systematic bias caused by always rounding numbers upwards.

Defence Equipment: Procurement

Owen Thompson: To ask the Secretary for Defence, what steps the Government is taking to help prevent potential halts in production of defence components in the defence supply chain sector owing to the impact of price rises in the UK energy markets.

Jeremy Quin: We routinely monitor risk and fragility in the defence supply-chain, including those associated with rising commodity prices, and work closely with suppliers where consideration needs to made of targeted intervention.

Advanced short-range air-to-air missile: Procurement

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has incurred any extra costs as a result of the delay to the in-service date of the ASRAAM Sustainment Programme.

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the ASRAAM Sustainment programme has entered service on the (a) Typhoons and (b) F-35 IIs.

Jeremy Quin: The ASRAAM sustainment programme continues to be delivered within Complex Weapons Portfolio contract price. On current plans, the resultant ASRAAM Block 6 standard is due to enter service on Typhoon in 2022 and F-35 Lightning II in 2024.

Department for Work and Pensions

Personal Independence Payment: Scotland

Ian Murray: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions her Department has had with the Scottish Government on changing the eligibility criteria to access adult disability payment from the current criteria in personal independence payment.

Chloe Smith: The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Local Housing Allowance

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions,  how many households are in receipt of local housing allowance (LHA) in payment; how many of those households have rents which exceed the local housing allowance rate; and of the latter households, what the median gap is between the rent and the LHA, by the number of children in the household in (a) England, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales, for the most recent period for which data is available.

David Rutley: In May 2021 there were 1,896k households in receipt of LHA via Housing Benefit or Universal Credit in Great Britain. Of these, 982k had rents which exceeded the LHA and the median gap was £100/month. This breaks down as attached table. In response to Covid-19 we increased LHA rates to the 30th percentile of local rents in April 2020. This significant investment of nearly £1billion has provided 1.5 million claimants with an average £600 more housing support last year than they would otherwise have received. We have also maintained Local Housing Allowance rates at the same cash level for 2021/22.For those who require additional housing support Discretionary Housing Payments are available. Since 2011 we have provided over £1 billion in Discretionary Housing Payments funding. We have allocated a further £140 million for Discretionary Housing Payments for 2021/22 in England and Wales.58402 attachment (xlsx, 22.9KB)

Kickstart Scheme

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate she has made of the number of job placements made via the Kickstart scheme (a) to date, (b) in each of the last six months and (c) by region.

Mims Davies: As of the 11th October, 86,000 young people have started a Kickstart job. Over 204,900 roles have been made available for young people to apply to through the scheme and over 307,500 jobs have been approved for funding. The tables below list the number of starts per month over the last 6 months as well as the number of Kickstart jobs which have been made available and started by young people to date by geographical area of Great Britain. The figures used are correct as of the 11th October and these figures have been rounded according to departmental standards. Although care is taken when processing and analysing Kickstart applications, referrals and starts, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, which has been developed quickly. The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics, but is provided in the interests of transparency. Work is ongoing to improve the quality of information available for the programme. Table 1- Jobs started on the Kickstart Scheme by month.Month Monthly StartsApril9,480May10,300June11,940July11,610August11,280September16,640 Table 2- Jobs made available and started on the Kickstart Scheme by Location.LocationJobs Made AvailableTotal Jobs StartedEast Midlands12,5005,240East of England16,4006,060London43,50018,560North East8,3004,000North West25,40010,930Scotland15,2007,420South East23,5009,330South West14,7005,610Wales11,1004,190West Midlands18,5007,870Yorkshire and The Humber15,8006,760*These numbers are rounded and so may not match provided totals. Jobs Made Available include 1,000 non-grant funded vacancies and Total Starts include around 900 starts to non-grant funded jobs

New Enterprise Allowance

Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason her Department has decided to end the New Enterprise Allowance scheme.

Mims Davies: The contract for the New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) was due to end in March 2021, but was extended by nine months to support claimants through the unprecedented challenges that arose due to the pandemic. As the economy opens up, it is right that we focus our resources on getting jobseekers into work and progressing with support underpinned by our Plan For Jobs. Furthermore, while referrals to the NEA end on 31 December 2021, participants on the programme will receive support until October 2023. The NEA is just one form of provision available to the self-employed. Those self-employed or those wishing to become self-employed can access support from the Small Business Helpline in England, Business Wales and Fair Start Scotland. Additionally, the Start Up Loans scheme, run by the British Business Bank, delivers support to many people that may have otherwise struggled to obtain it through a commercial bank loan. The scheme provides mentoring to those starting their business, and offers support to women entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs from ethnic minority backgrounds and the previously unemployed. Where Jobcentres identify claimants with additional support requirements not met elsewhere, they may use Flexible Support Fund to commission additional localised support. Support for the self-employed is built into Universal Credit, so claimants can receive financial support to supplement their earnings and they can receive regular support from Self-Employment Work Coaches, who will signpost entrepreneurs to tools and resources to develop the skills and experience they need. Claimants on legacy benefits who become self-employed may migrate to Universal Credit and receive a start-up period of up to one year, which includes 1-2-1 Work Coach support to develop their business.

State Retirement Pensions: Females

Paul Girvan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman entitled, ​Women’s State Pension age: our findings on the Department for Work and Pensions’ communication of changes, published on 29 July 2021, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the Ombudsman's findings and potential for compensation for claimants impacted by the changes to women’s State Pension age.

Guy Opperman: The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) has not completed his investigation. This a multi staged process and the report published on 20 July 2021 concludes stage-one of the investigation. It would not be appropriate to comment on the PHSO’s report whilst the investigation is ongoing; and section 7(2) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 states that Ombudsman investigations “shall be conducted in private”.

Pensioners: Fuel Poverty

Neale Hanvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the steps her Department could take to help pensioners avoid fuel poverty ahead of energy bill increases.

Guy Opperman: The Government is committed to tackling fuel poverty and protecting low income and vulnerable households. The Winter Fuel Payment provides pensioners with support for their energy bills over winter. Government has committed to keeping the Winter Fuel Payment and will continue to pay £200 to eligible households with someone between State Pension age and 79, and £300 to a household with someone aged 80 or over. The payment is intended to give reassurance to pensioners that they can keep warm during the colder months. Cold Weather Payments are also available for periods of extreme weather to those in receipt of Pension Credit, including those receiving the Savings Credit element. The Scottish Government will in due course replace Winter Fuel and Cold Weather Payments with its own provision under the terms of the Scotland Act 2016. The Warm Home Discount scheme, worth £354 million this year, further provides eligible low-income and vulnerable households with £140 off their fuel bill over winter. Around one million low-income pensioner households – in receipt of the Guarantee Credit element of the Pension Credit – will receive a rebate this winter. Most eligible pensioners will receive their rebates automatically, without having to take any action. The scheme will be extended to 2026 and continue to support low-income pensioners with their energy bills.We recognise that some people continue to require extra support, which is why we have introduced a £421 million Household Support Fund to help vulnerable people in England with essential household costs over the winter as the economy recovers. The Barnett Formula will apply in the usual way, with the devolved administrations receiving almost £80 million (£41m for the Scottish Government, £25m for the Welsh Government and £14m for the NI Executive), for a total of £500 million. This winter, the energy price cap will continue to protect around 15 million British households on default tariffs, saving them between £75 and £100 a year on dual fuel bills. In addition, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy reached a Voluntary Agreement with energy suppliers last year which remains in place this winter. Vulnerable people and those experiencing financial difficulty should contact their supplier to discuss support available under the agreement, including reassessing, reducing or pausing debt repayments.

Winter Fuel Payments

Neale Hanvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she plans to take ahead of expected energy bill increases to help ensure that the Winter Fuel Payment is fit for purpose.

Neale Hanvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to ensure that the Winter Fuel Payment will be uprated annually to keep pace with inflation.

Guy Opperman: The Government has committed to keeping the winter fuel payment and will continue to pay £200 to eligible households with someone between state pension age and 79, and £300 to a household with someone aged 80 or over. The payment provides reassurance to pensioners that Government assistance is available and that they can keep warm during the colder months. The Scottish Government will in due course replace these payments with its own provision under the terms of the Scotland Act 2016.

State Retirement Pensions: Females

Owen Thompson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints have been received by her Department on the communication of changes to women's State Pension retirement age as at 18 October 2021.

Guy Opperman: As of 18 October 2021, DWP received 9822 complaints in the period from August 2016 to September 2021.

State Retirement Pensions

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of the equalisation of the State Pension on the (a) incomes, (b) well-being and (c) health outcomes of people affected.

Guy Opperman: Changes to State Pension age were made over a series of Acts by successive governments from 1995 onwards, following public consultations and extensive debates in both Houses of Parliament. We do not hold any recorded information of an impact assessment that informed the rises in State Pension age of the Pensions Act 1995. However, the White Paper ‘Equality in State Pension Age’ 1993 contains some consideration of impacts. The document can be found here http://qna.files.parliament.uk/qna-attachments/1084399/original/Equality%20in%20State%20Pension%20age%201993.pdf The 2006 impact assessment 'The Gender Impact of Pension Reform' considered a wide range of reforms to both state and private pension systems, including proposed State Pension age changes, and can be found here:https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20111115164646/http:/www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/genderimpactassessment.pdf The Department has carried out a number of impact assessments to consider how new regulatory legislation impact those affected by the changes. These include some mention of the impacts on income and health. Please see: The 2007 Regulatory Impact Assessment can be found here: https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20121204130650/http:/www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/pensions-bill-ria.pdfThe Pensions Act 2011 Impact Assessment can be found here:http://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pensions-act-2011-impact-assessmentThe Pensions Act 2014 Impact Assessment can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pensions-act-2014-impact-assessments-may-2014

State Retirement Pensions: Reform

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to reform the triple lock on the State Pension.

Guy Opperman: There are no plans to reform the Triple Lock. The legislation currently before Parliament is a one-year response to exceptional circumstances.

State Retirement Pensions: Administrative Delays

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of new state pension claimants have experienced delays in processing their claim in (a) the UK, (b) Wales and (c) Aberavon.

Guy Opperman: This information is not held and is only available at disproportionate cost to the Department.

State Retirement Pensions: Administrative Delays

Matt Rodda: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether people approaching State Pension age will face delays in receiving their State Pension.

Guy Opperman: Over 50 per cent of claims made on line through Get Your State Pension are processed automatically. All other State Pension claims received to-date, where a payment is due in October, will be processed by the end of October; with the exception of those claims where we need additional information, or there is a future entitlement date.We do not expect delays to State Pension claims in the future provided all relevant information has been received.

State Retirement Pensions: Administrative Delays

Matt Rodda: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether all those affected by the delays in new State Pension claims have had their claim resolved.

Guy Opperman: We expect all State Pension claims received to-date, where a payment is due in October, to be processed by the end of October; with the exception of those claims where we need additional information, or there is a future entitlement date.

Pensions and Unemployment: Portsmouth

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the impact of the closure of Cosham Pension Centre on (a) her Department's ability to process pension claims and (b) levels of unemployment in Portsmouth; and if she will make a statement.

Guy Opperman: Work currently carried out at Cosham will be undertaken in other locations across the national network.

Debt: Money and Pensions Service

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the impact of the Money Advice and Pension Service debt advice tender process on local provision of debt advice.

Guy Opperman: The Money and Pensions Service’s (MaPS) debt advice recommissioning is expected to materially increase the amount of debt advice available to people in England and ensure services are built around customers’ needs. MaPS is taking proactive steps to ensure the debt advice tender process retains a set level of debt advice delivery at the regional and local level.

State Retirement Pensions: Females

Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that when rectifying the underpayment of the State Pension, the women affected are contacted by an appropriate means that caters to any disabilities or impairments they may have.

Guy Opperman: DWP is committed to ensuring our services are accessible to all. This includes making reasonable adjustments to meet the needs of all our customers who have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010, as well as supporting customers who may be deemed to need additional support. DWP ensures that communications with anyone who has been underpaid State Pension meet an individual’s requirements by using the information we have recorded on our systems at the claims stage. This includes the adoption of communications aids such as: Audio / British Sign Language, Induction Loop, Type-talk, Braille and large print letters. Regular monitoring of telephone calls and written correspondence ensures that we maintain service standards and meet each individual’s specific communication requirements.

Social Security Benefits

Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the eligibility criteria are for a claimant to receive their payments through her Department's Payment Exception Service when Post Office card accounts end.

Guy Opperman: The Payment Exception Service has been designed for customers who cannot open or manage a basic bank or standard accounts and enables them to obtain cash payments via the PayPoint network or from their Post Office.

State Retirement Pensions: Forecasts

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the extent of delays in responding to requests for State Pension forecasts for people who have deferred their State Pension.

Guy Opperman: Where customers have deferred making their State Pension claim, there is no delay to DWP responding to such requests for State Pension forecasts. All such requests are being processed.

State Retirement Pensions

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many new claims for State Pension from (a) men and (bi) women were paid more than four weeks after the claimant’s sixty-sixth birthday in each of the last twelve months.

Guy Opperman: This information is not collated as a matter of normal business under this, or previous governments and is only available at disproportionate cost to The Department for Work & Pensions.

State Retirement Pensions

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people are facing delays in receiving their State Pension after sending in their application; how long people facing such delays are waiting on average; if he will make it his policy to (a) not suspend and (b) reinstate working age benefits whilst people wait for their State Pension; what payments are available to people who do not have enough to live on whilst their pension application is delayed; and if she will make a statement.

Guy Opperman: We expect all claims received to-date, where a payment is due in October, to be processed by the end of October, with the exception of those claims where we need additional information, or there is a future entitlement date. Those cases which could not be processed through Get Your State Pension or received clerically will be prioritised if they are due payment by the end of the month. Persons over pension age can make a claim for Pension Credit and further information is available online at: www.gov.uk./pension-credit We are aware that there are small numbers of delayed State Pension Claims. All of these customers have been contacted by the department and we are awaiting further information so we can finalise their claims.

Pension Credit

Patricia Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to (a) raise awareness of Pension Credit and (b) make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the time period for claiming backdated Pension Credit from three months.

Guy Opperman: Around 1.4 million eligible pensioners across Great Britain receive some £5 billion in Pension Credit which tops up their retirement income and is a passport to other financial help such as support with housing costs, council tax, heating bills and a free TV licence for those over 75. We continue to use every opportunity to encourage pensioners to check their eligibility and make a claim. For example, on 16 June as part of a media day of action on Pension Credit, DWP joined forces with Age UK as well as the BBC to help reach, via national and local media, older people who may be reticent about claiming it. More recently, on 7 September, I met the BBC Director General to discuss other opportunities to work together to get information about Pension Credit to pensioners and their family members. We have also set up a working group including organisations such as Age UK, Independent Age, the BBC and British Telecom to explore innovative ways to reach eligible pensioners. The most recent meeting of the working group took place on 19 October. Earlier this year, over 11 million pensioners in Great Britain received information about Pension Credit in the leaflet accompanying their annual State Pension up-rating letter. They will do so again next year. There are no plans to review the existing Pension Credit backdating rules.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Ivory

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of creating an ivory surrender scheme.

Rebecca Pow: The Ivory Act will not affect the ownership of ivory items and as such we have no plans for a Government surrender scheme at this time. We recognise that for some low value items, owners may decide it is not cost-effective to register them for sale. This will be a decision for individual owners. Such items may of course be gifted, donated or bequeathed rather than discarded. We will explain to owners the options available to them as part of our awareness-raising campaign.

Dangerous Dogs

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to publish the research on responsible dog ownership commissioned by his Department from Middlesex University.

Jo Churchill: Defra commissioned Middlesex University to examine measures to reduce dog attacks and promote responsible ownership. The research considers different approaches and the effectiveness of current dog control measures. The report will be published shortly and will provide the basis for the consideration of further reform in this area.

Meat: Ritual Slaughter

Fabian Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure the Jewish community's supply of kosher meat is uninterrupted.

Victoria Prentis: The Government is committed to protecting the rights of the Jewish community to eat meat prepared in accordance with their religious beliefs. This is a fundamental issue of religious freedom and belief, which the Government upholds. As the global economy has rebounded from the pandemic, we have seen pressures placed on supply chains across sectors and across countries. The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain which has coped well in responding to unprecedented challenges and we have been taking decisive action to ease these pressures where immediate interventions have been required, including making available temporary visas in some sectors such as HGV drivers and the poultry sector. We have well-established ways of working with the food industry to address potential food supply chain disruptions and that hasn’t changed. As such we are confident the supply of kosher meat will continue uninterrupted.

Large Goods Vehicle Drivers: Vacancies

Anna McMorrin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to improve the efficiency of export and import supply chains for UK-based food and drink business in the context of HGV driver shortages.

Victoria Prentis: The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, as demonstrated throughout the Covid-19 response. It is well equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. Our high degree of food security is built on access to a range of sources, including robust supply chains domestically, and from a diverse range of other stable countries. On 20 July, the Government announced a package of measures to help the road haulage industry tackle the issues caused by the HGV driver shortage. These measures consist of support for the recruitment and retention of drivers, proposals to streamline the process to obtain a licence, increasing the number of driving test slots available, offering financial assistance for training, and backing industry-led initiatives to improve the working conditions for drivers and the image of the industry. We announced further measures on 25 September. These include training up to 4,000 new HGV drivers through skills bootcamps and the adult education budget. Alongside this, 5,000 HGV drivers will be able to come to the UK in the run-up to Christmas, providing short-term relief for the fuel and food haulage sectors. Nearly one million letters have been sent to drivers who currently hold an HGV driving licence, to thank them for their vital role supporting the economy, and to encourage those who have left the industry to consider returning. We will continue to work closely with industry to address the HGV driver shortage and to explore all avenues which will help the sector recover and help the economy thrive. The Government has launched a short consultation on 14 October setting out proposals to temporarily extend so-called “cabotage” rights. This would allow overseas haulage operators delivering goods to the UK to make further unlimited collections and deliveries within a 14 day period, as opposed to the current limit of two such trips within seven days. Subject to the outcome of the one-week consultation, these temporary measures would come into force towards the end of this year for up to six months, helping secure supply chains in the medium term alongside the wider package of measures the Government has put in place to address the shortage of drivers more broadly.

Home Office

Refugees: Afghanistan

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme will open for applications; and when initial decisions on applications to that scheme will be made.

Victoria Atkins: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Cybercrime: International Cooperation

Conor McGinn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking with her international counterparts to strengthen the UK's national resilience against (a) ransomware and (b) wider cyber crime.

Damian Hinds: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Animal Experiments: Antidepressants

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with the Animals in Science Regulation Unit and other stakeholders on granting licences for the use of the forced swim test for screening of antidepressant drugs or as a model of human depression in response to the recommendations of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research, published 29 July 2021.

Tom Pursglove: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Visas: Afghanistan

Peter Kyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will authorise entry clearance without biometrics for visa applications from Afghan nationals in (a) Afghanistan and (b) countries bordering Afghanistan.

Victoria Atkins: A policy statement onAfghanistan resettlement and immigration was published on 13 September.https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghanistan-resettlement-and-immigration-policy-statement/afghanistan-resettlement-and-immigration-policy-statement-accessible-versionWe do not comment on security matters, but security checks underpin the UK’s immigration system and help identify against immigration and criminality records to prevent leave being granted to those who pose a harm to national security or are likely to breach our laws.

Chevening Scholarships Programme: Afghanistan

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to include former Chevening scholars in the Afghan citizens' resettlement scheme.

Victoria Atkins: We successfully evacuated the majority of Afghan Chevening scholars in this year’s cohort and will continue to do all we can to support the small number who remain in Afghanistan.The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) is not yet open. Information on the eligibility, prioritisation and referral of people for the ACRS is set out in the policy statement published on gov.uk on 13 September, available at Afghanistan resettlement and immigration policy statement - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

UK Border Force: Shipping

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of hours the cutters used by Border Force run on their main engines per annum.

Tom Pursglove: On average in 2020, each vessel ran for 1112 hours.Each Border Force Cutter is available at short notice for deployment in UK territorial waters and is deployed for 15 days at a time in 12-hour shifts before the necessary crew changes are made.

Drugs: Misuse

Crispin Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans her Department has for consultation in advance of its forthcoming long term drug strategy.

Kit Malthouse: The Government published its initial response to Dame Carol Black’s independent review of drugs on 27 July, and the upcoming drug strategy will set out our more detailed response to the review’s recommendations. It will present our whole-of-government approach to combating drug misuse by supporting people through treatment and recovery and driving down drug supply and demand.We are continuing to engage with external experts across a wide range of sectors in order to shape the approach and interventions set out in the strategy, building on the research undertaken as part of the independent review. Dame Carol is also working with the Government on the development and delivery of the strategy in her new role as an independent advisor.

Police: Motor Vehicles

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of police vehicles in (a) the territorial police force of Greater Manchester and (b) police constabularies across the country.

Kit Malthouse: The Home Office do not collect information on the number of police vehicles in a police force. Future requests should be directed to police forces.

UK Border Force: Shipping

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the annual fuel consumption costs are of Border Force's cutters.

Tom Pursglove: During financial year 2020-21, the annual fuel cost across the BF cutter fleet was £388,000.

Asylum: Children

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans her Department has to lift No Recourse to Public Funds conditions on unaccompanied children seeking asylum.

Kevin Foster: Children are unable to apply for public funds themselves; therefore, the no recourse to public funds policy is not relevant to the consideration of support provided for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC).

Veterans: Immigration

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to publish its response to the Immigration Fees Public Consultation.

Kevin Foster: The Ministry of Defence and Home Office ran a joint public consultation from May to July 2021 on the issue of waiving settlement fees for certain non-UK members of the Armed Forces.The Government is carefully considering responses and will publish its formal response to the consultation shortly.

Home Office: Correspondence

Afzal Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to provide a substantive response to the correspondence from the hon. Member for Manchester Gorton of 24 September 2021 regarding Godwin Ojo.

Kevin Foster: The Home Office responded on 18 October 2021.

Sexual Offences: Victim Support Schemes

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support organisations that assist victims of sexual violence.

Rachel Maclean: We are committed to ensuring that victims and survivors of VAWG get the support they deserve. This year, the Government is providing approximately £300 million for victim and witness support services.The Ministry of Justice alone has provided £150.5m for victim and witness support services. This funding includes £50m to increase support for rape and domestic abuse victims and recruitment of more Independent Sexual Violence Advisers to help victims feel informed and supported at every stage of their recovery journey.This year, the Home Office is providing nearly £200k to the National Sexual Violence Support Fund to support victims and survivors of rape and sexual violence. The Home Office is also providing £120k to the Revenge Porn Helpline to support victims of non-consensual intimate image sharing, colloquially known as ‘revenge porn’.Also, the Government recognises the significant pressure that support services are under and are working closely with them to monitor levels of demand. The Ministry of Justice has increased core funding for rape support centres by 50%, from £8 million to £12 million per annum, and extended the Rape Support Fund until March 2023 to ensure support services have the funding stability they need.It is hoped that the forthcoming Spending Review will provide long term funding certainty for departments and by extension, the organisations we support through funding.

Asylum: Afghanistan

Carol Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to enable people in Afghanistan to be reunited with family members in the UK.

Victoria Atkins: Family members of British citizens and settled persons, including those with humanitarian protection in the UK, who were not called forward for evacuation as part of Op PITTING, will need to apply to come to the UK under the existing economic or family migration and reunion rules. They will be expected to meet the eligibility requirements of their chosen route, which may include paying relevant fees and charges, and providing their biometrics.The British Embassy in Kabul has currently suspended in country operations and all UK diplomatic and consular staff have been temporarily withdrawn.The UK is working with international partners to secure safe routes out of Afghanistan as soon as they become available, but while the security situation remains extremely volatile, we recommend people in Afghanistan do not make applications and pay application fees at this time as they will not be considered until biometrics are provided. Those Afghans who are outside of Afghanistan and able to get to a Visa Application Centre to provide their biometrics can make an application in the usual way.A full policy statement on this matter published on 13 September 2021 can be found here:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghanistan-resettlement-and-immigration-policy-statement/afghanistan-resettlement-and-immigration-policy-statement-accessible-version

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Urban Areas: Finance

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department plans to take to assess the impact of (a) The Towns Fund, (b) the Levelling Up Fund and (c) the Community Renewal Fund against previously implemented area-based initiatives.

Neil O'Brien: We are committed to robust monitoring and evaluation to understand the impact of our funding, ensure value for money and learn from what works to inform the design of future initiatives.The Towns Fund evaluation will examine the impact of its interventions, including on: employment, land values, resident incomes, business turnover and profits, investment, well-being and perception of place.This is summarised in the Towns Fund Monitoring and Evaluation Strategy, which the Department will publish in due course.

Towns Fund

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much and what proportion of the total funding has been allocated from the Towns Fund to date.

Neil O'Brien: Through the Towns Fund all 101 Towns invited to submit proposals for a Town Deal have been provided with a Heads of Terms offer, worth a combined total of £2.4 billion; in addition, all 72 successful Future High Streets places have been allocated funding, worth a combined total of £830 million.

Public Lavatories: Non-domestic Rates

Mr Richard Holden: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much each local authority has saved as a direct result of the abolition of non-domestic rates on public lavatories.

Kemi Badenoch: The value of the relief is estimated to be worth around £6 million p.a. to eligible public lavatories in England. This includes both privately or publicly occupied public lavatories, we do not hold data on the split of support between privately and publicly occupied public lavatories.

Local Government: Local Press

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans he has to enable local authorities to place statutory notices with digital-only local news outlets.

Kemi Badenoch: Local authorities have to publish statutory notices that relate to a wide variety of topics in local newspapers. We currently have no plans to change the statutory duty.

Members: Correspondence

Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to respond to Question 50971 and the correspondence dated 23 July 2021 from the hon Member for Bolton South East regarding funding for the Remembering Srebrenica charity.

Kemi Badenoch: A response to the letter was sent on 21 October.

Social Rented Housing: Construction

Jess Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of social house building rates.

Eddie Hughes: We recognise the need to build more social housing, and since 2010 we have delivered over 542,400 new affordable homes, including over 382,300 affordable homes for rent.To increase this further we are investing over £12 billion in affordable housing over 5 years, the largest investment in affordable housing in a decade. This includes the new £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme (AHP), which will provide up to 180,000 new homes across the country, should economic conditions allow. Approximately half of the homes delivered will be for sub-market rent, and we will deliver more than twice as many homes for social rent as the current programme, with around 32,000 social rent homes.

Rented Housing

Jess Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to deliver a new deal for renters.

Eddie Hughes: The Government remains committed to building back fairer and delivering a better deal for renters. We will publish a White Paper setting out a package of reforms that create a fairer private rented sector that works for both tenants and landlords. We are undertaking robust and structured stakeholder engagement working with the sector to inform this while also learning from the pandemic and its impact on the sector. We will bring forward legislation in due course and when parliamentary time allows.

Land: Agriculture

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what the national average value is of land designated for agricultural use per hectare.

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what the (a) national and (b) regional average value is of land designated for agricultural use per hectare for the most recent period for which data is available.

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what the (a) national and (b) regional average value is of land designated for residential use per hectare, for the most recent period for which data is available.

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what the (a) national and (b) regional average value is of land designated for industrial use per hectare, for the most recent period for which data is available.

Christopher Pincher: The latest estimates of land values published by the department and produced for it by the Valuation Office Agency can be found here; https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/land-value-estimates-for-policy-appraisal-2019 .

Recreation Spaces: Ministerial Responsibility

Liz Twist: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which Minister has responsibility for parks and green spaces.

Kemi Badenoch: Parks and green spaces share joint responsibility between the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). DLUHC is responsible for urban parks and green spaces and I am the responsible minister. In DEFRA, the responsible minister for the domestic natural environment, is Rebecca Pow MP and Lord Benyon is responsible for landscape, including national parks.

Local Government: Meetings

Rosie Duffield: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to publish the Government's response to the Local Authority Remote Meetings call for evidence.

Kemi Badenoch: The Department is reviewing the responses to the consultation and will respond in due course. Any permanent change would require legislation, and would depend upon Parliamentary time being available.

Elections: Proof of Identity

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Government's voter ID plans, whether student IDs covered by the PASS scheme will be accepted as valid ID to vote.

Kemi Badenoch: As set out in Schedule 1, Paragraph 15 of the Elections Bill, any identity card covered by the PASS scheme that shows a photograph of the bearer will be accepted as valid identification for the purpose of voting at a polling station.

Visual Impairment: Voting Methods

Wendy Chamberlain: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 23 September 2021 to Question 51854 on Visual Impairment: Voting Methods, what recourse would a blind or partially sighted person have in the event that a tactile voting device was not available in their polling station should a Returning Officer decide that the provision of that device was not reasonable.

Sir George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the Elections Bill on the ability of blind and partially sighted people to vote without assistance.

Sir George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans his Department has to provide information on (a) support for and (b) changes to voting in elections to blind and partially sighted people.

Kemi Badenoch: It is integral to our democracy that everybody is able to make their voice heard and that elections are accessible for all those eligible to vote.This is why, for the first time in electoral law, through the Elections Bill, we are putting in place a requirement for Returning Officers to consider the needs of all disabled voters when providing equipment for polling stations.This will allow Returning Officers to tailor the package of equipment they offer to their voters and to take into account developments in equipment and technology, in order to best meet the needs of people with disabilities including those who have sight loss.Clear guidance will be issued to Returning Officers by the Electoral Commission, which will be produced in partnership with the Government's expert Accessibility of Elections Working Group, which includes a wide range of stakeholders including the Royal National Institute of Blind People.We will also work with the group and wider stakeholder networks to publicise the support available and help ensure people get the right support for them.

Local Government: National Insurance

Patricia Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate his Department has made of the cost to Local Authorities of the increase in employer National Insurance.

Kemi Badenoch: This Government intends to compensate public sector employers for the increased cost of the Levy.

Local Government: Energy

Patricia Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate his Department has made of the financial cost relating to the increase in energy prices will be for local authorities in England in financial years (a) 2021-22 and (b) 2022-23.

Kemi Badenoch: We have empowered local authorities to make decisions on a range of matters that shape what happens in their area. We believe that, for most local government responsibilities, the most effective way to fund them is through councils' Core Spending Power. Core Spending Power is flexible to ensure local areas can prioritise based on their own understanding of the needs of their local communities.    On 10 February, the Local Government Finance Settlement for 2021-22 passed in Parliament unopposed. This year, we have made available an increase in councils' Core Spending Power of up to 4.6% in cash terms, from £49.0 billion in 2020-21 to up to £51.3 billion in 2021-22. This in real terms builds on the largest year on year increase in spending power in a decade last year and recognises the resources councils need to meet their pressures and maintain critical services We are committed to ensuring the sector continues to get the support they need to maintain key services and build back better after the pandemic. The forthcoming Spending Review will be the opportunity to consider local government's future funding needs in the round, and we will seek to provide local authorities with longer-term clarity to enable their forward planning.

Scotland Office

Coronavirus: Vaccination

John Lamont: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what discussions he has had with the Scottish Government to encourage a UK-wide covid-19 vaccine certification mobile app.

Mr Alister Jack: I discuss a wide range of issues relating to the Coronavirus pandemic with both Cabinet colleagues and Scottish Government Ministers on a regular basis. When domestic certification was first identified as a potential strategy to support the Covid-19 response, and in order to respond to other States' requirements for international travel, there were a number of discussions, both at Ministerial and official level with all of the devolved administrations to look at both the possibility of a UK-wide certification solution, but also should this not be feasible to ensure technical interoperability between individual certification solutions where necessary. As public health is a devolved matter, the Scottish Government decided to develop its own vaccine certification mobile app, and to require its use in certain settings within Scotland. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has promoted the Scottish Government's app with governments internationally so that it is recognised at international borders. The UK Government Secretary of State for Health and his officials in DHSC and NHSx (which leads on digital health) continue to have weekly discussions with all of the devolved administrations to ensure alignment and interoperability on all elements of the Covid response. Should the UK Government decide to introduce domestic certification, we will continue to work with the devolved administrations to ensure interoperability, so that no citizen is impacted adversely when they travel across the UK.

Cabinet Office

Procurement: Overseas Trade

Anna McMorrin: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the Supply Chain Advisory Group plan to report their recommendations to the Cabinet on resolving export/import supply chain issues.

Michael Ellis: The Supply Chain Advisory Group will bring together experts in the field, including from outside of Government, to provide views on how to resolve live supply chain issues. The Group will look at issues across the supply chain holistically. Once its work is concluded, its recommendations will be reported to the appropriate fora.

Cabinet Office: Correspondence

Mr Alistair Carmichael: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to improve his Department's response times to correspondence from members of the public.

Michael Ellis: The Government recognises the importance of responding to members of the public in an effective and timely manner. To that end, the Cabinet Office published an updated Guide to Handling Correspondence for Government Departments and Agencies in July 2021.The guidance reasserts the standards for handling correspondence including: a 20 working day deadline for departments to respond to members of the public, criteria outlining when a response to a member of the public is required, and; when a piece of correspondence from a member of the public should be transferred to another department. Following publication of the updated guidance, all departments have been reminded that they must follow the processes outlined in the guidance.In the Cabinet Office, we continue to prioritise timely responses to correspondence from members of the public - despite a significant increase in case volumes. We also keep our processes under continuous review to further improve the time taken to respond.

Business Appointments Advisory Committee: Finance

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had with the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments on the adequacy of its funding; and if he will make a statement.

Michael Ellis: I refer the Honourable member to Written Statement HCWS185.The Government is working with the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments to improve the operation and efficacy of the Business Appointment Rules. The recommendations from Nigel Boardman’s report into the development and use of supply chain finance in government, as well as the forthcoming Standards Matter 2 report from the Committee on Standards in Public Life will be considered as a part of this work, and an update to the Business Appointment Rules will be published this year.

Parents: Coronavirus

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the number of additional children beyond the annual average who have lost a parent since the beginning of the covid-19 outbreak.

Michael Ellis: The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have, therefore, asked the Authority to respond. Professor Sir Ian Diamond | National StatisticianCharlotte Nichols MPHouse of CommonsLondonSW1A 0AA20 October 2021Dear Ms Nichols,As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what assessment has been made of the number of additional children beyond the annual average who have lost a parent since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic (57430).The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes mortality statistics for England and Wales, compiled from information supplied when deaths are certified and registered as part of civil registration. Death registration figures for Northern Ireland and Scotland are available from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency1 and National Records of Scotland2, respectively.An ONS report on ‘Excess mortality and mortality displacement in England and Wales: 2020 to mid-20213 showed that between 28 December 2019 and 2 July 2021, the number of deaths registered was 97,981 more than the five-year average for a similar calendar period, an excess of 11.9%.The information collected at death registration does not include the number of children to whom the deceased was a parent. While family structure is recorded at the decennial census and could in principle throw some light on this question, information from the 2011 Census would be insufficient since it does not include children born since the 2011 census day, and corresponding data from the 2021 Census are not yet available.It is therefore not possible at present to make any reliable estimate of the number or proportion of people who died who were parents, or of the number of children who sadly lost a parent.Yours sincerely,Professor Sir Ian Diamond1https://www.nisra.gov.uk/statistics/births-deaths-and-marriages/deaths2https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/deaths3https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/excessmortalityandmortalitydisplacementinenglandandwales/2020tomid2021

Census: Latin America

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will add Latin American to the list of ethnic identities to be included in the next census.

Michael Ellis: The UK Statistics Authority is responsible for delivering the census and the National Statistician will make recommendations in 2023 on the future of the census. Census 2021 questions were based on their recommendations following 3 years of extensive research, consultation and evidence gathering. Any future census would follow a similar process when deciding on the format of questions.

Department for International Trade

Trade Agreements

Anne Marie Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps she is taking to include supply chain security agreements for (a) medicines, (b) food, (c) gas and (d) other essential goods in future trade deals.

Mr Ranil Jayawardena: Free trade and free markets will be crucial to the global economic recovery as the coronavirus crisis passes, and more resilient supply chains in the future. Our ambitious programme of free trade agreements will be an important part of the United Kingdom’s post-COVID economic strategy, making it easier for businesses to access goods, services, and capital to fuel economic recovery, and growth. Our work with other departments and with business to strengthen critical supply chains seeks to improve the United Kingdom’s security and economic resilience through international trade. Our starting position when seeking to build resilience in critical supply chains is to take a market-first approach.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Internet: Children

Chris Elmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to set standards for age-assurance technologies to protect children from harmful or age-inappropriate content to meet legislative objectives set out in the draft Online Safety Bill; and if she will make a statement.

Chris Philp: Age assurance technologies are an important child safety tool. Their use will be essential for supporting compliance with the draft Online Safety Bill’s higher protection for children. It is important that these technologies are robust, effective, secure and inclusive. This is needed to ensure children are appropriately protected online and so that the public has trust in these solutions. DCMS is leading a detailed programme of work on age assurance technologies. This includes working with the British Standards Institute and the International Organization for Standardization to develop relevant standards, including an international standard that will set consistent expectations on key considerations including user privacy, confidence levels, security, and inclusion.

National Lottery: Internet

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential harms to people and communities of the National Lottery’s shift towards online-based games and away from traditional draw-based games; and whether her Department holds information on the potential causal link between people using the National Lottery mobile app and using other forms of mobile gambling.

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to Public Health England’s research and analysis entitled Gambling-related harms evidence review, updated on 30 September 2021, what assessment her Department has made of the potential (a) economic and (b) social effects on people and communities of the National Lottery’s shift towards online-based games and away from traditional draw-based games.

Chris Philp: The Department and the Gambling Commission as the independent regulator share three statutory duties in relation to the National Lottery - to ensure that the National Lottery is run with all due propriety, that the interests of every participant are protected, and - subject to those duties - that returns to good causes are maximised. The National Lottery is regulated under a separate framework from commercial gambling, with additional requirements regarding the protection of players.'Instants games’ have been part of the National Lottery portfolio for the majority of the time since the National Lottery was launched in 1994. Scratchcards were introduced in 1995 and online Interactive Instant Win Games in 2003. A broad portfolio ensures the National Lottery continues to appeal to a wide range of people and can provide substantial contributions for good causes every week.All games, including instants games, are licensed by the Gambling Commission. In determining whether to licence games, the Commission will consider the potential impact on players and the player protection mechanisms which are in place to protect players from harm.The current National Lottery operator has a range of online player protection tools for players (for example self-exclusion tools, spend and play limits, and the option to set lower limits) and has developed an online algorithm for identifying at risk and problem play which alerts players to help encourage healthy play habits.Evidence from the latest (2018) Health Survey for England shows that National Lottery games were associated with the lowest rates of problem gambling of all gambling products considered. Problem gambling rates for National Lottery draw-based games were 0.9% while the figure for Scratchcards was 1.4%.

Internet: Children

Ben Lake: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will bring forward proposals to strengthen online protections for children by requiring technology firms to tackle cross-platform risks as part of the Online Safety Bill which would place a duty on the companies to (a) assess cross-platform risks when designing their sites and (b) share information with other companies on (i) offender behaviour, (ii) threats to children’s safety and (iii) new features which could lead to child abuse.

Chris Philp: The Online Safety Bill will create a safer online ecosystem and address cross-platform harms to children. Companies in scope likely to be accessed by children will need to put in place appropriate systems and processes which protect children from encountering harmful content by means of their service. This could include protecting children from being directed to harmful content or activity on other sites.The regulator will undertake research and horizon-scanning to identify cross-platform emerging issues, backed up by robust information-gathering powers. In addition, the super-complaints process will enable organisations to submit evidence of systemic issues that are causing harm to certain groups across more than one service.

Internet: Pornography

Ben Lake: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will bring forward proposals to (a) bring pornography sites which do not host user-uploaded content within the scope of the Online Safety Bill and (b) strengthen age verification processes for those sites.

Chris Philp: The strongest protections in the draft Online Safety Bill, published in May 2021 for pre-legislative scrutiny, are for children. Where pornography sites host user generated content or facilitate online user interactions, they are in scope of the Online Safety Bill.The Online Safety Bill will capture the most visited pornography sites, social media platforms, video-sharing sites, forums and via image or video search engines. Companies will be required to protect children from harmful content such as online pornography or face tough enforcement action by the regulator.The government recognises the concerns that have been raised about protecting children from online pornography on services which do not currently fall within the scope of the Bill. The government will use the draft Bill’s pre-legislative scrutiny to explore ways to provide wider protections for children from online pornography.

Voluntary Work

Anne Marie Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to encourage volunteering during the recovery from the covid-19 outbreak.

Nigel Huddleston: DCMS is focusing its role as a steward of the sector, working collaboratively to improve access to volunteering by removing long-standing barriers, some of which have been exacerbated or exposed by COVID-19.As part of our work to investigate how and the extent to which COVID-19 has impacted on volunteering in England, we produced a report to investigate what drives demand for volunteers and how this varies over a typical calendar year, as a means of identifying potential issues in the supply of volunteers. This also examined the effect of the pandemic on volunteer supply and demand. *We are working with the voluntary and community sector to develop a Vision for Volunteering, which will be a clear and actionable 10 year plan to simplify access to and experiences of volunteering in England.We are also planning to launch a new Volunteering Futures Fund, which will provide new volunteering opportunities for young people and others who experience barriers to volunteering, within DCMS sectors (arts, culture, museums and heritage) as well as in youth, tackling loneliness and place-based community initiatives.* https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-report-on-the-drivers-in-demand-for-volunteers

Planning Permission: Newspaper Press

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she plans to expand the requirement for (a) planning and (b) other statutory notices to be placed with news outlets to include digital-only news outlets.

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans she has to enable local authorities to place statutory notices with digital-only local news outlets.

Julia Lopez: While policy responsibility for each specific type of statutory notice lies with other departments, my department is working closely with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to ensure that the implications of any changes to publicity requirements relating to planning notices are understood before decisions are taken, as they consider next steps with regard to the Planning for the Future White Paper.

Broadband: Standards

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that broadband providers deliver their advertised (a) service and (b) download speeds to consumers’ homes.

Julia Lopez: Ofcom’s Broadband Speeds Codes of Practice requires that internet service providers (ISPs) provide consumers with information about the service they can expect, including download speeds, prior to purchase. ISPs who have signed up to the Code - and this includes, for example, BT, TalkTalk and Virgin Media - also commit to providing consumers with a minimum guaranteed download and upload speed, allowing them to cancel or leave their contract, without penalty, should the service fall below the agreed standard.

Channel 4: Hearing Impairment

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with Channel 4 on the restoration of their subtitle service for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Julia Lopez: The department has been in contact with both Channel 4 and Ofcom on this issue. It is important that television content is accessible for all UK audiences and as such all public service broadcasters are required to ensure adequate provision of access services, including subtitling, for their broadcast channels. Ofcom, as the independent regulator, is closely monitoring the situation, including the actions being taken to restore normal service as quickly as possible and to keep viewers informed.